Candle in the wind
by thebeastlystuff
Summary: Izuku is born as the secret child of Endeavor and Midnight. Because he is born out of wedlock, he is able to escape the trauma of being raised by Endeavor, however, his childhood is by no means easy. Follow as an orphaned Izuku tries to take everything that life throws at him as he becomes a pro-hero. Quirk Izuku, Pairings to be revealed, Maybe receives One For All
1. Prologue

Hi everyone, I have been reading My Hero Academia fanfics for a while and was really interested in the concept of Endeavor being the father of Izuku. I kind of took this concept and ran with it, adding other aspects that I think may have added a cool twist. I have written around 40,000 words, almost 6 chapters, for this fanfic over the summer, but haven't touched it since and thought that I wouldn't want to never post this. I decided that I wanted to continue to add on to the story, and to motivate me, I thought I should post the first chapter. This is my first fanfic and would really appreciate constructive criticism, I think that each chapter gets better.

My summary is really bad so if anyone comments a better one, I might use it. Please comment and tell me what you liked or didn't like, don't hold fanfic will have some romance, I have two definite pairings for once Izuku starts U.A., but I don't think it will be too prevalent. I have a general idea of where I want to take this story, but there are many parts that are still undecided. I hope you enjoy!

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Izuku has just been born as the son of number 2 hero Endeavor and Nemuri Kayama. This wouldn't be a problem if Nemuri wasn't a fifteen-year-old aspiring hero who plans on entering U.A. High School as a recommended student and if Endeavor didn't have a wife with three, soon to be four, children.

As a child, Nemuri had a strong sense of justice and an urge to save people, however, she realized that her quirk, while very useful, wouldn't be very helpful in a hero school entrance exam. Her quirk, Somnambulist, allows her to put people to sleep by exuding a sleep-inducing aroma from her body. She thought that her quirk would be perfect for apprehending villains but she also knew that many hero schools used robots in their entrance exams and she was essentially quirkless if she was fighting robots. U.A. high may have been the preeminent hero school of Japan, but its entrance exam was especially skewed towards physical and flashy quirks. However, the improbability of her getting into U.A., or any other high profile hero school, wasn't enough to suppress her interest in heroics. Because of this, she often found herself dutifully following villain encounters.

One of these specific villain encounters came as she was a 14 year old in early October. Nemuri had found herself wandering around, subconsciously walking towards an ignition of flames. As she arrived at the scene, she found that her favorite hero, Endeavor, was talking to a villain with a hardening quirk who had a hostage with him. Despite not having a license, Nemuri knew she had a quirk that could help out in this instance so she asks some of the riot officers if she could use it to help out. After a relatively quick discussion, they agree to let her use her quirk. A few seconds of calming herself down and armed with a suitable plan that both she and the officers were comfortable with, Nemuri steps forward, ready to use her quirk to knock out the villain. As she advances, Nemuri removes her jacket, revealing a very appealing figure and a skin-tight spandex suit with a hole cut out near her wrist. She subtly aims her wrist towards the ground as a pink, smokey substance begins to spread out and converge around the villain. Within seconds, both the villain and the hostage become drowsy and get knocked out.

After the smoke clears, Endeavor goes forward to secure the villain, leaving the hostage to the police. Once the villain was in quirk suppressing handcuffs, Endeavor walks over to Nemuri.

Endeavor hated thinking about his family. After all the good he had done for the world, he had nothing to be proud of at his home. He married his wife mostly because of her quirk and when he realized he wasn't close to becoming the number one hero, he made it his goal to create the perfect fighting machine who would be capable of beating All Might. As of now, none of his children even had his quirk in its entirety. They weren't even close to having the perfect combination of both his and his wife's. But Endeavor didn't want to think about that right now. He wanted to get the girl who just knocked out the villain to come to a hotel with him, and judging by her constant glances and subsequent blushing when he would look her way, he knew that she would accept. When Endeavor does ask for Nemuri to spend the night, it wasn't a surprise when she accepts.

Nemuri was ecstatic. She was going to hang out with the hero she had a crush on after she had helped him in a hostage situation. She wasn't 100% sure why he wanted her to come with him, but she wasn't dense and was excited by those prospects.

When they get to the hotel room, Endeavor surprises Nemuri with a question about her quirk. After she explains it to him thoroughly enough to satisfy, he asks about how she thinks their combined quirks would manifest in a potential child. While this line of questioning was unusual to Nemuri, she again answers until he appears satisfied.

Endeavor was originally planning on listening to what Nemuri had to say, but he ended up not caring that much. Endeavor rarely cheated on his wife, this would only be the third time, but for some reason, he was in a foul mood. This foul mood made him careless. He had always made sure that he never got a girl pregnant, but he was too driven for him to ever stop thinking of ways to surpass All Might. After his first three children failed to develop the perfect quirk combination, Endeavor was starting to think that his choice in spouse might have been poor. Something about tonight made him think deeply about his legacy. Maybe it was the recent test to check his son's quirk factor, or maybe it was the tall busty woman in front of him. He starts seriously thinking about combining quirks…

 _Perhaps my wife's quirk and my own are too opposite for us to have created the perfect child as I have imagined we would have. When Fuyumi was born and I saw her hair, I thought that our first child would be able to wield both fire and ice. I was so disappointed when it was just watered down_ ice _. Natsuo was a little better. He has the ability to fully yield ice but he has no fire in him, literally or metaphorically. It doesn't help that he has none of my quirk factor in him so his ice is barely stronger than_ Rei's _. He could probably be a decent hero but his ice quirk would never get him in the top 10. There is very little of me in that child so he is not worth my time. His twin brother Touya might have some potential. It all depends on whether or not he can build up his heat resistance. His quirk is still not as strong as mine but with me training him, he could crack the top 10. He lacks the same level of pyrokinesis that I have but his fire is slightly hotter. Too bad we can't kill every villain we see. He does have the drive to be a hero but that can only get him so far and his drive could fade as he faces real challenges. Nevertheless, I might have to train him if my super-soldier child never happens. Fuck, maybe I need to stop thinking of good quirk combinations and start just creating children. I have a wife and children so I can't just find a new wife if I want to keep my spot as the number two hero. FUCK THAT. I don't care what anyone thinks of me. I want to be the strongest. Maybe I'm too caught up in focusing on the quirks itself instead of the child. Either way, I hope my next child has my quirk factor along with mine and my wife's quirk. My legacy has to be more than All Might's number 2._

Endeavor's thought process was interrupted by a seductive and eager Nemuri, "Are we gonna do this or what?"

Endeavor grumbles a response, "Hold on for a bit I'm just getting ready"

He goes back into his train of thought.

 _Now back to the current situation. She's very attractive, well endowed, and tall ... If we had a boy he would probably grow up to be at least my height. In regards to this potential child's quirk, I guess the best combination would be to take after me while also being able to use and control the sleeping gas in a similar manner to what I am capable of. I guess with me as a parent, any child could be a top hero. With that thought, I think it's about time to start._

In this momentary lapse of judgment, Endeavor decides to not use a condom.

Time skip to a week later…

Endeavor receives a call from an unknown number.

He responds in a rough tone, "Who is this and how did you get this number?"

Nemuri responds, "It's been a week and you already forgot about me? I'm pregnant!" and she angrily hangs up.

Time skip to 8 months later…

Endeavor has become increasingly anxious about his supposed bastard child. Not wanting to let having an illegitimate child ruin his reputation, he decides to use his immense influence for some good ol fashioned blackmail. He decides to call in one of his favors and sets up a meeting with Nezu.

Endeavor and Nezu are speaking in a room inside U.A.

Nezu: "Are you sure you want to recommend this student? Any reason why?"

Endeavor: "She has a good quirk that wouldn't get her past the entrance exam."

Nezu: "You have never cared about the unfairness of the entrance exam before. Why should I believe you have no ulterior motive? Why do you choose to remain anonymous as her sponsor?"

Endeavor thinks: _I can't bully or outsmart this guy, or bear or mouse or whatever, I'll just have to give him a suitable answer that he'll accept._

"I want her to think that she got in on her own accord and I don't want the teachers to think any differently of her."

Nezu: "You know as well as I do that the teachers don't care about how a student gets in. As long as the students are worthy, the teachers will raise the next generation of heroes to the best of their abilities."

Endeavor: _Fuck, I knew that wouldn't work but I had to try it. I'll just tell him most of the truth. He's smart enough to know not to pry and I've earned_ a favor _from U.A. with all the money I've given and all the cases I've resolved._

"I don't want this student to know that I or any hero influenced her admission. I do have ulterior motives for wanting this student in. It would be in my best interest to have her admitted to this school. I have my reasons for wanting to remain anonymous and I won't tell you explicitly what they are. I would have other ways of getting rid of this problem but this girl could become a legitimate and useful hero. While my main reason for getting this girl into this school isn't to improve hero society, she will surely do so and will have extreme motivation to excel while at the school. With the amount of money I have donated and with my status as the number two hero, this society needs me to be one of its pillars. Having this girl in U.A. will make my life much easier. You are smart enough to know that we don't live in an ideal world. I know that you have standards and I can assure you that my reasons for wanting her in the school aren't too bad. We would both be better off if you don't look into the exact reasons for me wanting her to be a hero so you can feign ignorance to the reasons if they ever do pop up."

Nezu: "It's about time you were honest with me. You should know that trying to trick me is useless. I agree with the points you have made and I will agree to give Nemuri Kayama one of the recommended slots regardless of what I think of her. I do very much appreciate the work you put in as a hero and the money you donate and raise for this school. Just know that I won't do these favors all the time, so stay out of trouble. How do you recommend letting Ms. Kayama know that she has been chosen as a recommended student?"

Nemuri is alone in the hospital room. Her parents had been dead for a while and she had recently isolated herself from her friends.

 _I only have one month until my interview with Nezu, what am I supposed to do with the kid. I was going to keep it, but now I don't know what to do. All my life, I wanted to be a hero who could save lives and now I have the perfect chance. The acceptance rate for U.A. was 0.3% and only the top applicants dare to apply. There was no way I could pass on this opportunity that so many would desperately want. With a recommendation to the top hero school, I could follow my calling. Unfortunately, this also means that I wouldn't be able to be a good parent. Being a hero is a very dangerous job with unpredictable hours. I barely deserved the recommendation in the first place and doubt that I could keep up in such an intense school while raising a child._

Nemuri just stays in the hospital bed, with a newborn Izuku comfortably sleeping in her arms, as she contemplates what to do.

A few hours later, Nemuri gets a call from Endeavor. While she is surprised and a bit spooked that he somehow knows about Izuku's birth within hours, she's happy nonetheless that he contacted her. However, any happiness that comes with the unexpected call from the child's biological father vanishes as soon as Endeavor starts speaking.

Endeavor: "Listen, from the same sources that informed me that you gave birth, I also know that you got recommended for U.A. That is an opportunity that you can't pass up. For the sake of both of our hero careers, it would be best if you gave up the child. I'm the number two hero and society relies on me to be a pillar. No one can know of my affair and the fact that I have an illegitimate child. You can't raise that child and be a hero at the same time. It would not be safe for the child and you would be unable to provide for him. I am sorry that I got you pregnant but society needs me to maintain my public image. I will pay for any expenses due to the pregnancy as well as give you any other money you might need. I doubt you need any more reasons, but If villains ever found out that I had an illegitimate child, they would take him as a hostage. I guarantee that It would be in your and the kid's best interest if you gave him up."

And with that, Endeavor hangs up. Offering no explanation on anything and no assurances on the babies safety if Nemuri does decide to keep it. His tone made this seem like a demand rather than the suggestion that it actually was. While Nemuri knew that being a hero would make raising a child hard, she now fears for this child's potential safety… and she wasn't sure if that threat was from villains or from Endeavor himself. Either way, she is convinced it would be in the child's best interest if she gives him up for adoption.

Nemuri takes a year off after the birth to get her body back into hero shape and to redo her studies which she mostly ignored.

Time skip to shortly after the start of Nemuri's second semester in her first year at U.A.

Nemuri, now Midnight, Eraserhead, and Present Mic are sitting together during lunch like they usually do. Present Mic and Eraserhead were polar opposites yet instantly became friends and within days, Midnight joined in on their amusing friendship. Midnight's risque and provocative personality fit in perfectly with Present Mic's impulsive and outgoing nature and Eraserheads indifference towards everything. Pretty soon, these friends turned into good friends and shortly thereafter, best friends. The trio was inseparable, spending nearly all of their free time together. In the short time that they had spent together, the group had gotten to know each other pretty well. Because they knew each other so well, Eraserhead and Present Mic knew that something was wrong with Midnight, and they knew it had been eating at her for a while now.

While the harassing calls and pseudo-threats from Endeavor have finally started to become less frequent, Midnight is still a bit uncomfortable with revealing her situation to her best friends. She knows she needs advice on how to deal with her problem, yet she doesn't want her friends to look at her differently. Lost in her own thoughts, she abruptly stands up and asks her two best friends to meet her on the roof once they are done with lunch.

Terrified with what her friends would think about her knowing she had a kid, Midnight is visibly shaking as she walks up the stairs to the roof. Midnight realizes just how guilty she feels from giving up Izuku and how much Endeavor's presence makes her life miserable. She knows she needs to get this off her chest no matter how uncomfortable it makes her. It takes the next five minutes of composing herself before the creaking of the door and the sound of footsteps distracts her from the trance she was in.

Present Mic starts the talking in the softest tone he can muster: "Hey, what's bothering you. You haven't seemed like yourself since the semester started... Which has been the entirety of our friendship"

Eraserhead: "I concur, you haven't been acting rationally for a while and we would have approached you soon if your behavior didn't change. You constantly seem distracted and it is only getting worse."

Midnight: "I am distracted and scared, not for my safety, for someone else's. I have a secret to tell you... I have, or at least had a child, a baby boy named Izuku and I gave him up for adoption because I got recommended for U.A."

Eraserhead: "Are you scared that people will find out that you have a child or is there something else?"

Midnight: "I'm only a little worried that people would know that I have a child, I don't really care that much about the public knowing that I had a child this young. As long as the public doesn't know who specifically the child is. I really hid the fact that I had a child because I was ashamed that I had to give him up and because I was concerned for his safety. I really didn't want to give the kid up, but this line of work is too dangerous to half-ass and making the kid an orphan by having a dead mother is the only thing worse than putting him in an orphanage… I uh I'm more concerned with the identity of the father."

Present Mic: "And the father is?"

Midnight: "That's the fun part. The father of my child is the number two hero, Endeavor."

Eraserhead and Present Mic both gasp upon hearing who the father is. It takes a few seconds before Eraserhead composes himself and speaks.

Eraserhead: "While I can see why that is a problem, given that he has a wife and four kids, I don't know why you're scared."

Midnight: "I'm scared for the safety of the child. I think Endeavor would do something to the kid to make sure the child is kept a secret from the public."

Eraserhead: "Now that's not rational."

Present Mic: "I have to agree with Eraserhead here, while it would definitely be in Endeavor's best interest to keep this child from becoming public knowledge, he's probably taking steps to ensure this child's safety right now. He might be an ass but he's a hero at heart."

Eraserhead: "While his motivations for becoming a hero are unknown, he would never go after a kid just to protect his reputation. If you feel guilty about giving up the kid, why don't you make sure he is okay. Just check on him to ease your worries. Make sure the kid is happy and continue to keep him a secret from anyone you don't trust entirely."

Midnight: "Will you guys come with me to check on him? I'm gonna need some emotional support when I do it."

Present Mic: "Of course!"

That weekend Present Mic, Eraserhead, and Midnight go to the adoption agency. They stop at a fancy coffee place beforehand and Eraserhead and Present Mic say that Midnight should go on ahead without them.

Present Mic: "You should go on without us, it would be suspicious if three U.A. students go into the adoption agency. If we're gonna go full paranoid about this, someone might think we have a connection to one of the kids. Ya dig."

Midnight nods nervously and walks forward without them. Entering the orphanage, Midnight is immediately ambushed by the person working at the front desk. "Hey, we're short staffed today, I saw you at the U.A. sports festival and these kids love heroes. I know I can trust you. Would you mind watching them for the day? I'll stay in the front and I'll help you if you need anything but I could really use the help." Midnight beams at the question, "I was hoping to play with the kids when I came, I would love to."

Midnight walks into a room filled with kids up to the age of five. They were all playing together happily. As soon as she closes the door, a boy with a huge clump of fiery red hair rushes her, grabbing on to her leg. The kid screams in excitement, "You're Midnight, a real hero. I saw you at the sports festival."

Surprised by the kid's comment, Midnight looks over the kid _Huh, looks much bigger than he sounds, he looks three and a half feet tall minus the hair._

When Midnight finishes scanning the kid, she does a surprised double take and gasps. That kid… he can't be… he's way too big, but he has to be.

Small tears of joy began to form at the corners of her eyes as her train of thought gets interrupted by this same kid's adorable voice. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry. I just get really really excited when I see heroes."

Recognizing the kid's disappointment, Midnight quickly flashes the biggest smile she could, "I'm just really happy you know who I am." Her suspicions are confirmed when she hears a kid in the background say, "Wow Izuku you're so cool, you were able to recognize her right away?" A different kid chimed in "Yeah, wow, how did you do it." Izuku just grins loving all the attention he was getting, still yet to have let go of Midnight's leg.

Midnight loved having her child hanging on her, even if he didn't know that she was his mom. As discreetly as she could, Midnight snaps a picture of Izuku and sends it to Present Mic and Eraserhead with the caption, This is the little guy, love him already, I'll be here for 10 more hours. With the text sent, Midnight returns to playing with Izuku and his friends.

A few hours into their playing, Izuku wants to know how Midnight's quirk works. After some prodding, she agrees to show her quirk to the kids. She announces to the room, "I'll let you see my quirk at nap time. I'll even use it on you guys." With that, all the kids erupt in cheer. They were so excited to see a real hero use their quirk. Once nap time comes, all the kids scurry to their sleeping bags to see Midnight's quirk in action. After preparing the kids, Midnight lifts a panel on her sleeve and releases her pink smoke to spread throughout the room. Pretty soon it appeared as if all of the kids were in a peaceful slumber.

Midnight stands up to let the person at the front know that the kids are asleep when she hears crying from one of the children. Turning around, she sees none other than Izuku looking like he is about to throw a tantrum. Her maternal instincts quickly set in as she rushes over to comfort him. "What's wrong?"

He quickly responded in muffled sobs, "Yuh-your quirrk, I it uh didn't work on me. W-Why didn't it work?"

Midnight pauses for a second before calmly responding, "My quirk doesn't affect everyone exactly the same, I don't know why it does, but it doesn't mean anything is wrong with you. Plus since you're the only one awake, you get the special Midnight sleep treatment."

Izuku quickly perks up a little upon hearing those words before drying the tears from his eyes. Finally done with crying, Izuku asks, "What's the special Midnight sleep treatment?"

Midnight pauses for a second before responding, "I will snuggle you until you fall asleep."

Right as she finishes talking, an excited Izuku squeels, "Really? Lemme get my All Might plush toy first." Izuku quickly scampers away before Midnight could warn him about waking up the other children. Seeing Izuku in the doorway, Midnight melts at the cuteness of the sight. Izuku is clutching an All Might toy that is almost as big as him, fiercely protecting it from a non-existent threat much like a mother bear would if something approached her cubs. Once Izuku gets to his sleeping bag, he motions for Midnight to lay down next to him. Midnight's mind goes into overdrive at this point. She is ecstatic that she could hold her kid once more. She had yearned for this moment the second she realized she would have to give the kid up for adoption.

Midnight lays down as Izuku turns over in his sleeping bag to get into a comfortable position. Izuku squeezes his All Might toy as he finally closes his eyes. He shuffles closer to Midnight as she hugs him. She holds the boy with such care and admiration, all she feels is bliss. Her mind is empty other than the thought that everything felt right. Within a few minutes, Izuku falls asleep and Midnight shortly follows suit.

A few hours later, a groggy Midnight wakes up to the sound of the door opening and the worker at the front telling all the kids that nap time is over. Briefly orienting herself, Midnight notices the mound of hair in front of her head. She ruffles Izuku's hair a little before kissing him on the forehead and telling him that it's time to wake up.

Izuku's vision is blurry as he wakes up from the contact to his forehead. Turning around, Midnight was there just smiling at him. He has a fuzzy feeling inside, feeling as if an unknown void has been filled. Izuku stumbles while trying to stand up and bows at Midnight "Thank you for helping me fall asleep Ms. Midnight."

Up until now, this encounter had gone exactly as Midnight had planned. She fell in love with Izuku as soon as she laid eyes on him, but she had to remember that she wasn't currently Izuku's mother, and the fact that he called her ms., was a harsh reminder of that. She mentally sighs before responding, "Anything for you." Izuku seemed satisfied with this response so he runs off to eat and play with friends.

Despite the fun, Midnight knows that she has to get back home. She realizes that she couldn't half ass playing mom and if she didn't put her all into her studies and training, she could end up dying on the battlefield. As Midnight readies herself to leave, the girl at the front desk went to thank her for coming. "I saw you sleeping next to Izuku. He's such a great kid already. Only two years old yet he brightens up the world. I know that this is an orphanage, but having Izuku here makes this place seem like so much more to these kids. I almost don't want him to get adopted because he seems so happy and he makes all the kids love their time here. I feel like this place would fall apart if he left. I feel horrible for whoever his biological parents are, I can't imagine the situation that would force them to get rid of that ball of sunshine. Ah, sorry for that little speech there. Thank you so much for coming, I'm sure it meant a lot to the kids to have a hero come here." With that, Midnight leaves, getting some well-needed closure over Izuku's happiness.

Once Midnight gets home, she facetimes Present Mic and Eraserhead.

Present Mic: "So how'd it go?"

Midnight: "The kid is perfect and during nap time he fell asleep in my arms."

Present Mic: "OMG soooo cute, did ya manage to get a pic?"

Midnight: "Unfortunately not, I was so happy in the moment I wasn't thinking about anything else. I don't have anything to show you other than the picture of him hanging on my leg."

Eraserhead: "Has visiting him given you some closure on your final decision?"

Midnight: "Yeah, I could never bring myself to take that kid from there. He is way too happy and all the kids like him way too much for me to ever put him in danger. Maybe when I have a stable job when he is older I may take him back, but until then, I won't so much as visit him. If he has a family by then, I will happily leave him be."

Present Mic: "Hopefully that picture you have of him will be enough to get you by until then. You definitely have someone you want to protect and he can be your motivation as a hero. Remember this, if you're just gonna half-ass this hero work, there would have been no point in giving the kid up for adoption."

Midnight simply smiles and nods before hanging up.

Time skip to near the end of Midnight's final semester in her final year of U.A.

Izuku's P.O.V.

 _It used to be all fun and happy here, what happened? Once everyone started getting their quirks, that's all people focus on. Why does everyone only care about quirks? The doctor said my quirk will develop soon but being_ quirkless _sucks right now. I really feel bad for all the kids that are_ quirkless _. What sort of harassment will they face just because of how they are born. I wonder how many parents took X-rays of the children and gave up the children that didn't have quirks. Sometimes I wonder if the world would be better off without quirks._

Elsewhere…

Fuyumi Todoroki barges into Endeavor's training room. Endeavor immediately stops what he is doing to scowl at her. "This better be important Fuyumi, you know not to interrupt me."

Almost ignoring her father's words, Fuyumi responds, "Come quick and look, Shouto's quirk is manifesting. It's just like you thought, it looks like its both fire and ice."

Endeavor responds, "Quick where is he?"

"He's just outside the flower garden."

"This is great news, go get your mother and tell her to come."

Endeavor runs as fast as he can to the flower garden, using his quirk to increase his speed. _Heh, got to be careful with that. It would be pretty ironic if I'm the one to burn the house down the day my son's fire quirk first appears._ When Endeavor finally gets to the flower garden he sees Touya and Natsuo on Shoto's left and right sides respectively, trying to show him how they use their quirks. He hears Natsuo tell Shoto to try and imagine pushing cold out on his right side and pushing heat out on his left. Ice starts shooting out of Shoto's right side and flames come out his left.

Endeavor has finally done it, he has created the perfect child.

Later that day… (Endeavor is speaking on the phone to his sidekick Blaze)

Endeavor: "Blaze, your assignment of patrolling the area near the orphanage is over."

Blaze: "Endeavor, is there a reason that you don't want me to continue watching the orphanage?"

Endeavor: "The woman hasn't come in over two and a half years and I don't believe the child's safety is at risk. At this point, having one of my men there puts the kid at more risk now that I am almost certain that no one knows that Izuku is my own child. I could also use your help training Shoto."

Blaze: "Does that mean he has manifested quirk?"

Endeavor: "Indeed it does, that child is a prodigy."

Blaze: "That's incredible he's not even four yet and he already has his quirk."

Endeavor: "We will start training at once. Consider your mission of protecting Izuku a success, I'm sure he will have a relatively normal and safe childhood."

END OF CHAPTER ONE

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Notes:

The Endeavor and Midnight part was really uncomfortable for me to write and I hope it isn't too apparent. The whole purpose of there interaction, other than creating Izuku, was to give some insight into Endeavor's mindset along with a little foreshadowing about something that will come up later. I described Midnight as busty even though she was a minor to try and show that Endeavor didn't know she was underaged.

Please favorite and follow if you like the story, also know that any comment is appreciated.

I'm very bad at drawing but I did make some fan art that I will post once it becomes relevant.

See you next chapter :D


	2. Overhaul my life

Hi all,

Sorry about accidentally posting last night, this time it's for real. It's my first time using this site and I thought I had to make a new chapter in order to edit and post the new chapter. I now know not to do that. Sorry to all the people who expected chapter two yesterday. I'll figure out how to make it up to you. Please comment on what you like or any criticisms or questions you might have, or really anything. Favorite and follow if you like the story. I will be releasing art when I release the next chapter. That being said, please enjoy!

Writing in _italics_ indicate thoughts.

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We see a dark room, illuminated only by the light of a couple of computer screens and some dim flickering lights. There are several people wearing bird masks chatting quietly to each other. The second the leader starts speaking, everybody else goes completely silent.

Overhaul looks at his underlings and begins speaking, "We're gonna need a test subject for Trigger and the quirk erasing bullets we have in development. What we are going to do is kidnap a kid. This child needs to be younger than five years old and yet to have manifested their quirk, yet the kid needs to have clear signs he is gonna have a quirk. This needs to be a kid that can vanish from the system. Luckily for us, I already have a kid in mind."

In a room with six monitors, a picture of Izuku shows up on the top left monitor while the other monitors have Izuku's vital information and incident files. Overhaul pulls up one of these digital files on Izuku and reads what shows up. "Mysteriously left at the orphanage by an unknown person. Will develop quirk soon 95% chance within 3-6 months. Above average intelligence. Well above average physical abilities. Very tall for age."

Overhaul: "While this kid is clearly promising, the main reason I want to take him is that there is something on his file that would make him very easy to abduct, rather something lacking on his file. Despite all the gifts this child possesses, he has somehow managed to not get adopted and he hasn't gotten a visitor in over 8 months. For some reason, it seems like this orphanage doesn't want him to get adopted. Not only can we make this kid disappear, but we might also be able to make him sympathetic to our cause in due time."

Overhaul continues, "None of you maggots can be trusted with a job of this much importance. I will secure the child and bring him back tonight."

Overhaul looks at his main assistant, "Chronostasis, change the kid's file to make him quirkless and give him a history of running away. In this stupid society, quirks are prioritized over people. No one cares about the person or their actions, making this kid quirkless will ensure that the authorities are less likely to care about him. A quirkless kid with emotional issues who is constantly running away won't even make the front page. After a week this kid will have disappeared completely. Also, don't forget to intimidate the attendant a little bit. I'll make sure she is completely silent, but you need to get her a little on edge."

Chronostasis: "Anything for you sir. I will let you know when the files are switched and then you can start the retrieval. "

Two and a half hours later…

Chronostasis: "Overhaul, I have snuck in and switched their paper files with our files. Also, as expected, the hack was successful so their digital files also reflect the changes that you desire. You are in the clear to take the kid."

Overhaul grunts in approval and leaves the room.

Izuku is walking around in the forest when a shadow covers his own. As he turns around his world goes dark.

Izuku wakes up momentarily freaking out thinking he has died but notices that he isn't in pain. _In the movies when you wake up in a dark room thinking you've died, your head is supposed to hurt…but I actually feel great._ Izuku tries to think about why he is in this situation and panics once more. He notices the heavy metal chains pulling him down from his ankles and wrists and he realizes that the room he's in isn't just dark, it's pitch black. No light is entering the room at all.

In another room, Izuku appears on a monitor slowly acclimating himself to his situation and getting progressively more restless.

Overhaul: "I guess the new kid has woken up. Better tell him about his new life here. I'll let him know that rebellion isn't tolerated. I'm gonna inject him with Trigger, maybe he won't even struggle much. I'm hoping with Trigger, his quirk will be forcefully activated."

Overhaul leaves the monitor room and enters the room Izuku is in. He turns on the light and stares to face Izuku.

Overhaul: "I'm gonna explain to you why you are here right now. You will let me finish without speaking. Understand?"

Izuku nods, still unsure of what's going on, too scared to saying anything that might worsen his already bad situation.

Overhaul: "Good, you seem like you learn quick. That'll do you some good if you want to survive here. First, we have a clear pecking order here. While the chain of command shouldn't matter to you as you are below everyone, all you need to know is that I am at the top and Chronostasis is in charge when I am gone. Second, and this should be obvious, you will not make any attempts to escape or try to contact the outside world. We run a tight operation here and getting caught would make things very hard. Also, if you escape, we will just get another child. You would be directly responsible for the kidnapping of another child if that happens. Third, the reason you are here is to be the test subject for quirk-related drugs we are trying to produce. While these drugs are illegal and we don't care for your emotional state, my quirk will fix your physical problems so you should develop normally and you should be able to go on and live a normal life if we ever let you go. This operation is very special to me. We live in a society where there is an unnatural and unhealthy obsession and reliance on quirks. I plan on erasing quirks and controlling the criminal underground. If you have any question ask me now, otherwise we will start our testing."

Izuku is terrified but still manages to stammer out a response, "I don't have any questions, but I do have a few requests. Given that I'll be used as a test subject, it would be in your best interest to have me in good shape, correct?"

Overhaul growls, "Get to the point!"

Izuku: "I just want to make sure that I am well fed and that you let me have access to a computer. Even though I am going to be locked in here, I would like to be allowed to learn."

Overhaul: "That I can do so long as you make no attempt at escape. I will arrange for you to be taught standard curriculum. Just know I will make your life much harder if you aren't obedient. We will get started now. The first step to our quirk testing will be to get your quirk to manifest. I know you were raised in an orphanage and you don't know anything about what your quirk may be. I will inject you with Trigger and your quirk will almost definitely show itself. Not that it matters to you, but we've never actually used this on a child before their quirk manifested. We've never actually used this at all."

Overhaul swiftly stabs Izuku in the thigh before he could protest. Izuku lets out a monstrous scream of pain before he yanks on the chains holding him. His body is fighting against itself as Trigger spreads through every inch of his being. There is unbearable pain near his wrists and ankles as he realizes that any contact with his skin feels like the sting of a bullet ant. Izuku feels a burning sensation take over his entire body and he releases it to the fullest extent. A fiery inferno destroys everything around Izuku as the chains are vaporized by the heat. As the fire begins to go back into Izuku's body, a cloud of smoke is released from Izuku's skin. All of this seems to be too much for the kid as shortly thereafter, Izuku succumbs to exhaustion and collapses.

What Izuku doesn't know is that Overhaul is at the other end of the room, unconscious, with several burn marks throughout his body as well.

Overhaul is the first of the two to wake up, regaining consciousness mere seconds after the explosion. While Overhaul knew the explosion of the fire was searing and powerful, he knew that alone shouldn't have knocked him out. He wondered whether the smoke that Izuku produced had some sort of sleeping agent inside of it. He knew that his question could be answered with a comprehensive test on Izuku's body. Overhaul looked at the monitor and three lower yakuza members immediately ran into the testing room with surgical tools and medical equipment.

 **THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH DEPICTS MUTILATION. IF YOU ARE BOTHERED BY THAT, START READING AFTER THE NEXT BOLD.**

The three members begin to surround Izuku and after moving him to his bed, and begin to take out parts of his body. One member takes out a scalpel and begins to cut a strip out off Izuku's arm. He takes two more strips of skin and muscle before moving on to the legs. Two strips below the knee and two strips from the thigh. As he is doing this, the second member begins to take blood samples from Izuku. The third member of the yakuza that came to remove Izuku's tongue grimaced before asking Overhaul, "Do I have to? Don't you think this is a little too far?" Overhaul promptly responded whilst removing a glove, "You are not here to give your opinion. You know what happens to people who disobey my orders." That quickly shut up the third yakuza as he proceeded to cut Izuku's tongue out. When the three members were done, they methodically placed all the removed samples and blood in separate sterile medical containers before leaving.

 **THE PARAGRAPH IS OVER.**

Overhaul walks over to Izuku before touching him with the hand that was no longer in his glove. As soon as he makes contact Izuku explodes, leaving viscera and bone shards in his stead before violently coming back together with his scars mostly healed and his tongue completely back to normal.

A few minutes later, Izuku wakes up screaming. Clutching his legs and his mouth, he feels the most intense phantom pain he thought possible. He looks at Overhaul hoping for some sympathy but instead, Overhaul completely dismisses him, just leaving a mask on the table. "I expect you to wear that whenever you are not in this room. Any time you are out of this room you need to be accompanied with an expendable. Tomorrow before breakfast, Mimic will show you around as well as go over the details of your studies. Dinner will be brought to you at 6:30 and I expect you to be asleep by 8. Mimic will wake you up at 8 and you will have an hour to study and walk around the facility. Learn the changing floor plans. I will not say how, but I designed an advanced schedule that this compound runs on. Things won't be in the same place each day. I will be going now, fortunately for you, the worst pain has already come."

Izuku finally alone in a room and is given some time to absorb what has happened to him. He moves his arm, surprisingly grateful that he doesn't have restraints on. He looks around the room where he will spend most of his time. The walls are perfectly white with a single picture of an unknown person hanging behind his bed.

Once Izuku takes in his surroundings, he falls back on his bed. Finally calm enough to think, he breaks down crying. He is a lost four-year-old who has been kidnapped and tested on in a span of a few hours. While the scarring isn't very apparent, Izuku does notice the scars along his arms and legs along with phantom pain above those scars. He is utterly lost and hopeless. He can only hope the outside world will manage to find him soon. Izuku doesn't notice the food that has been put inside his door. He has long since cried himself to sleep. Hopefully, this will get easier with time.

The next morning Izuku wakes up in a haze. Unsure if yesterday was just a horrible nightmare or not. He looks around and is immediately filled with dread. Izuku is still in the white room he remembers. All of his memories of yesterday rush back to him as he notices the single picture on the wall. With a flood of memories returning, Izuku also remembers the flames that he produced before passing out. Wondering if the flames were real, he tries to call upon them again. Feeling the familiar heat coursing through his body, Izuku erupts in flames, albeit much less intense than what he felt yesterday. Separate from the flames, Izuku feels a different sensation that he is trying to let loose. As he lets this escape, an unknown substance exits his forearms and the parts of his leg uncovered by his shorts. While Izuku is unaffected by this substance, he is able to deduct that this is some sort of poisonous gas. Looking at the clock on the wall, Izuku sees that it is 6:45 in the morning. He hears the familiar rumble of his stomach. From his physical and mental exhaustion the previous night, he hadn't thought about nor had he wanted to eat. He now notices that his room has a fridge in it. The fridge is almost invisible as the spotless white fridge completely blends in with the white walls. Izuku opens the fridge to notice a huge serving of chicken and vegetables. Upon seeing the food, Izuku realizes that he is starving. He quickly eats it all before going back to working out the kinks of his quirk.

Based on the scar patterns on his arms and legs, Izuku is able to deduce that while Trigger powers up quirks, it probably doesn't power up the bodies resistance to one's quirk. He wonders what all the current side effects of Trigger are and what Overhaul's quirk is. At this moment he decides to start writing down descriptions of quirks and possible uses and counters to them. Izuku knows he won't be able to take down Overhaul and whatever this organization is anytime soon, but having a description of everyone here might help him someday.

His thought process was interrupted as Mimic barges through the door. "Hey kid, I'm gonna show you around. This place is a maze and we've got to keep it that way. It's not gonna be easy but you're gonna need to memorize the floor plans. One of the reasons we have you is so you can test Trigger. Overhaul told me that once Trigger is perfected, I could use it in a pinch and make this place very hard to invade. My quirk allows me to enter objects and control them. I would be able to enter the ground and move it around and make this labyrinth impossible to traverse for any potential invaders. Probably shouldn't have told you, but you're just four."

Izuku made a mental note of that before following Mimic outside. As he was about to leave his room, Mimic slaps him hard on his face causing him to fall. Izuku slowly gets back up, remembering how brutal this place is before weakly asking, "Why'd you do that?"

Mimic quickly replied, "You were going to walk outside your room and defile the air that Overhaul breaths. HOW DARE YOU."

Izuku walks back to the table next to his bed before begrudgingly putting it on. Izuku realizes right now that his childhood is over, that he won't ever be able to be a normal kid again. This mask shows that right now you can control me. _Don't think I'll be your follower for long. Hopefully, you won't realize that I am taking notes on everything until it is too late. I will escape and I will take you down when the time's right._

With even more conviction, a masked Izuku follows Mimic around the facilities. Izuku is surprised at the size of the area that Overhaul controls. _This organization must be really clever if they could have this much land and still be completely unnoticed. Overhaul took many precautions and made just navigating this place near impossible. I will eventually find my way out and I'll escape once I know I have no chance of failure._

Unfortunately for Izuku, he hadn't thought about why they needed a test dummy in the first place. He didn't realize that for several hours a day, he would have to go through the same torture he went through the first day, but worse. He didn't know that Trigger was much less painful the first time because it was the first time he had ever activated his quirk. Izuku was also foolish enough to believe when Overhaul had said that his first night would be the worst pain he would experience as a test dummy. Izuku knew that it would only get worse before it got better since all Izuku knew was Mimic's quirk and he had yet to memorize the floor plan. The "getting worse" part was the harsh realization that now that his fire quirk had manifested, Trigger would make him burn himself. Izuku's young body had yet to get used to his extreme heat and he ended up with severe scarring within the first few days of testing Trigger. Izuku made sure to not let out the smoke that had sleeping properties as he thought that he could use the knockout gas he produced as a way to escape. The less they knew of his abilities, the better. However, all hope was not lost. The fact that Izuku knew Mimic's quirk at all meant that Overhaul didn't run a perfect system.

(Izuku's quirk is a combination of Endeavors and Midnight's quirk. The fire part of the quirk is the dominant part of the quirk. Izuku is able to hide the sleeping gas because it is much weaker. I will go into more detail at the end of the chapter.)

The days begin to go by for Izuku as he tries to gather more information. The Trigger sessions are still incredibly painful and getting disassembled and reassembled gets worse each time. He is never able to get used to it, but he could at least prepare himself. The education that Overhaul promised, ended up just being books full of data that resembled a schools curriculum. Izuku had to teach himself everything he wanted to know and he wouldn't be able to ask any questions about anything school related as the Precepts of Death thought it was pointless for a "lab rat" to have any knowledge. Within three weeks, Izuku had completely memorized the entirety of the floor plan. The pain and neglect that Izuku faced began to eat at him more and more. Soon enough, all happiness that Izuku had, had drained away. He yearns to see All Might's confident smile or just get a hug when he is sad.

Not that long after, Izuku feels no need to speak. His words aren't valued and he knows Overhaul's routines well enough to no longer need to ask any clarifying questions. After what feels like several months, Izuku had been around enough to find out what everybody's quirk is. He thought about acting like a robot to try and avoid supervision but decided against it as he didn't want to be deemed "defective" and be killed and not reassembled. He lived in constant fear, thinking that acting too weird might get him killed. Izuku may have been miserable and he had already lost all hope, but he didn't want to die and he would not quit probing.

Izuku decides to enact the next step in his plan which is to see if there is a pattern to whoever watches him. He concludes the best way to do this is to stop his pseudo-rebellion of taking off the bird mask when he is alone in his room. Knowing that he is being watched at all times and keeping the bird mask on lets the Precepts of Death know that Izuku still holds some of his previous ideals. After keeping the mask on for two weeks, Izuku decides to start following some of the members around outside of his room. He realizes that the eight expendables minus Rappa had a weekly rotation of following Izuku around. He soon realizes that he would likely need to fight one of the members if he wanted to escape and he didn't like his current chance of winning. Izuku faced the harsh reality that he might need to use Trigger to escape and so he'd have to go all out during Overhaul's experiments.

As Izuku started to use his flame quirk to its full extent during his daily Trigger usage, he built up a surprisingly large pain tolerance and the ability to regulate his internal temperature. As much as Izuku hated to admit it, Trigger was making his quirk and heat resistance grow stronger at an unnatural rate. He was able to figure out that when Overhaul reassembled someone, all physical ailments that the person had, would go away. Izuku figured that Overhaul disassembling and reassembling him ended up making his fire resistance way stronger.

Izuku having a clear goal is the only thing stopping his depression from turning into a complete mental breakdown. His emotionless expression hides his feelings well but he was not yet 5 and he felt immense sadness. He spends the next two years looking around the facilities before finally realizing that everyone follows a set routine. He didn't know how the Precepts members dealt with the monotony but he realizes that, with the exception of Rappa, all the members had resigned themselves as extensions of Overhaul. They would do all the dirty work that Overhaul didn't want to do and they would give their lives to save his without question.

It takes a while for Izuku knows that Rappa would be his way out. It becomes obvious that Rappa is the weak link in an almost perfect cog. The only problem is that Izuku needs to figure out how to use this to his advantage.

Fortunately for Izuku, while the passing time tries to slowly whittle away any possible happiness and hopes he once had, his older brain allows him to think more critically than his past four-year-old self. Somewhere along the way, Izuku also realizes that he does not deserve this suffering. His worries over the guilt of trying to escape disappear as he deems it is unlikely that Overhaul would kidnap another child.

After some further investigating, Izuku realizes that Rappa is the muscle of the group. While everyone there has some sort of role and does things to maintain the functioning of the group, Rappa is always either training or out of the facility. Somehow, Izuku manages to find out that Rappa is part of the precepts because he fought Overhaul and lost. Overhaul reassembled Rappa on the promise that he could continue to train and try and fight Overhaul again as long as he joined the Precepts.

Izuku finally figures out that in some way or another when Overhaul and Rappa fight again, there would be a disruption that might allow Izuku to escape. One uneventful day at the compound Izuku finally gets his break. Izuku hears two expendables mention Rappa and he casually walks over to behind a wall where he can faintly hear the conversation. "Overhaul and Rappa finally scheduled their rematch. It's on September 22nd at 6:30 in the morning. I don't know why we're planning this so ahead, the brat has never woken up a second before he should and has been a robot for years. I guess it is so everyone can watch."

For the first time in years, Izuku feels something other than dread. A normal child would feel elated but Izuku had long since stopped allowing positive thoughts to come. He finally has his way out. He knows he would have to continue acting like his emotionless self. But finally, he has something. He knows that Overhaul and Rappa have a rematch to fight on September 22nd at 6:30 in the morning and that everyone would be there to watch. Nobody knew that Izuku knew about this fight and that would be his time to escape.

The days go by slowly and Izuku's 8th birthday come and pass. Izuku figures that the Precepts knew his birthday based on his file, yet Overhaul didn't once mention it. Izuku spent his birthday crying himself to sleep. He wanted help, he wanted a hero, he wanted to be saved. All Might's smile had helped him get this far but he is still terrified of making his move. Izuku relies on All Might's smile once more. This may be his only chance to escape without direct confrontation for a while and it took several years for this opportunity to show up. He would have to do this himself if he wanted freedom. He kept his whole act of having given up for years so he could be granted this one opportunity to escape.

Soon enough, the night of September 21 had come and Izuku is terrified. He hadn't even been outside in nearly three and a half years and he didn't know what he would do even if he did escape. While Izuku is terrified of Overhaul, he had spent nearly half of his life in his clutches. He didn't speak anymore yet he knew he couldn't back out now. This might be the best chance he'll ever get. With his mind set on escaping, Izuku pretends to fall asleep and waits.

Ryukyu P.O.V.

The next morning Ryuko Tatsuma (Ryukyu) decides to wake up at 5 to get started on her patrolling extra early. Her friends told her that she should take the day off since it was her birthday but that made her want to patrol even more. She got into the hero business with the goal of saving lives and she hadn't yet felt like she had done so. While she had a very powerful quirk, it was a very destructive one and many people were scared of it. Ryukyu didn't want a special party or a day off for her birthday, what she wanted more than anything was to help someone and change their life.

Izuku P.O.V.

The second the clock hits 6, Izuku shoots up. He knows that everything he worked for was for this day. He wouldn't dare to start a little later and risk getting caught during his escape. Izuku had worn that stupid bird mask for years just to get Overhaul to trust him a little more, and his plan had finally paid off. The second the clock hit 6:25 Izuku opens his door and leaves his room. He had the layout of the hideout memorized since the first month he had been there and Izuku knew that nothing changed. He knew that there was only one exit that he could use to escape and he knew that there was a point inside the compound where he could start running and not be heard. Izuku had every part of his escape planned to the second and the biggest uncertainties would be whether or not he would meet any resistance, and who would he see once he got to the outside.

Ryukyu P.O.V.

Because it is her birthday, Ryukyu is allowed by her boss to deviate from her normal patrol route in order to possibly find more crime. She notices the time to be 6:38 in the morning as she turned left, onto a sketchy street with a bunch of small closed stores.

Izuku P.O.V.

Izuku continues down the underground labyrinth as he reached the point where he knew he could no longer be heard. If Izuku had been counting the time correctly, and he knew he was, then it had just turned 6:35. The fight would have started 5 minutes ago and Overhaul and Rappa would start using their quirks. Izuku didn't know how they matched up so he knew that he had to start running now. Fortunately for Izuku, he knew he was far enough. Izuku ran as fast as he could, using his flame quirk to enhance his speed. He left his sleeping gas along the hallways to make it more difficult for him to be followed.

After exactly 3 minutes, Izuku reaches a door. He opened it slightly and peeks in to make sure that no one is there before entering the room and closing the door behind him. Izuku pays no attention to whatever is in the room as he sees lines of light from the outside world making it through the closed shades on the other side of the room. Upon closer inspection, he sees that the light is from the sun. Izuku lifts up the shades to see a door being all that stopped him from escaping. He wouldn't stop now. Despite how scared he is, he wouldn't let himself hesitate as he quickly scurries outside. Scanning the street for people, Izuku sees a person staring at him. He runs towards her as fast as he could.

End of Chapter 2

* * *

Notes:

I haven't named Izuku's quirk yet, but it is a combination of Hellflame and Somnambulist. If Overhaul hadn't used the Trigger on Izuku, his Hellflame wouldn't have activated for another 3 months and the somnambulist wouldn't have activated for another 6 months. If Trigger had never been used on Izuku, his flame quirk would have been much weaker and he would be much more affected by heat. Don't forget to favorite and follow if you like the story. Please comment on what you like or don't like, or any questions you may have.


	3. Izuku's big break

I posted this chapter the right way this time, go me. There will be fanart released for this chapter of Izuku which should be at the bottom of the page after the chapter. I couldn't get the picture to show up without ruining the rest of the text so I just put up the links. I don't know what else to say other than I hope you enjoy!

Italics indicate thoughts.

* * *

As soon as Ryukyu turns onto the street, she sees a kid desperately sprinting towards her. The kid is covered in burns along the totality of his arms and legs. He shows clear signs of abuse and his face is plastered with fear. The kid looks no older than 8 or 9 yet his eyes are completely devoid of happiness. Ryukyu's confusion mounts when, as soon as the kid reaches her, he desperately clutches her shirt. Ryukyu is unable to grasp exactly what is going on, but she knows enough to know that she has to take immediate action. She tightly hugs the kid and starts sprinting, with him in her arms. Once Ryukyu is far enough away, she decides to call her boss to tell him that she found a distressed kid and that he should come to get them. Once all the commotion is over, Ryukyu realizes that she has a distressed kid with her, not just someone who needs saving. She doesn't know what to do try and calm down the kid so she takes a line from All Might and says, "I don't know what happened to you, but you are safe now, I am here!" As soon as Ryukyu utters that phrase, the kid finally smiles and breaks down crying.

Izuku examines the person holding him. _I am going to trust her. She used All Might's catchphrase, she must be a hero. I trust her._ He is so lost in his thoughts that he almost forgot about the bird mask that he was forced to wear is still on his face. Izuku pushes away from Ryukyu before ripping the mask from his face and igniting the hand that was holding the mask. The bird mask is almost immediately incinerated as the ashy remains from the mask crumble in Izuku's palm before falling to the ground. Izuku takes a step back before blasting the ashy remains on the ground once more with the hottest fireball he could muster.

Ryukyu gets taken aback with the impressive display of fire before noticing the kid is trembling. Ryukyu didn't know what the meaning of the bird mask was, but decides to ignore the technically illegal public quirk use. Instead, she kneels down so the kid could cry on her shoulder. Ryukyu and Izuku stay like this for several minutes before Izuku runs out of tears.

Pretty soon, the members of Ryukyu's hero agency show up. Ryukyu leads Izuku into the company car where they sit in the third row together. Izuku refuses to let go of Ryukyu as they got into the car. Ryukyu decides now would be as good a time as ever to get some basic information from the kid, but Izuku thinks otherwise. Overwhelmed with emotions, Izuku dozes off, snuggling with Ryukyu's arm. Despite Ryukyu enjoying the admittedly cute kid hugging her arm, she knows she is going to need answers soon. But for now, she would let the kid sleep.

Once they get to Ryukyu's hero agency, Ryukyu ruffles Izuku's hair to wake him up. His eyes shoot open as he gets oriented to his new surroundings. Ryukyu motions for Izuku to come with her and he sheepishly follows behind her, stumbling as he rushes to hold her hand. _I can't help but feel bad for the kid. It's kind of nice for him to be so clingy though, most kids think I'm scary because of my quirk. I guess he hasn't seen my quirk yet. Even if I didn't do much, maybe I kind of saved this kid._

Ryukyu's thought process is interrupted by the kid's scared voice, "Do we have to go inside, I want to see the outside?"

Ryukyu responds, "We don't have to go inside if you don't want to, but I think it would be much more comfortable for us to sit on some nice furniture together. I will make sure the room has many windows." That response along with Ryukyu's caring voice seems to calm down Izuku's nerves as he nods and follows Ryukyu to her bosses office.

Izuku sits down on a soft couch next to Ryukyu as several people come through the doors. While the heroes tried to create a relaxed environment, Izuku becomes overwhelmed by the number of people and begins to cower behind Ryukyu. Ryukyu's boss, Bones, notices Izuku cowering and turns to Ryukyu, "Would it be easier for you If everyone except for her left?"

Izuku nods so the rest of the heroes get up and leave. This does wonders for Izuku's wellbeing as Overhaul and the rest of the yakuza never did anything to make him more comfortable. Ryukyu finally starts with the questioning.

"Hey kid, how old are you"

Izuku begins counting on his fingers before he held up 8 fingers.

"So you're 8 years old?"

Izuku nods.

"What's your name?"

"Izuku"

"Do you have a last name"

"No"

"Do you have parent's or a family?"

"I was an orphan"

"What were you doing when you saw me?"

"I was escaping."

"Escaping what?"

"Overhaul."

"Who's that?"

"The guy who kidnapped me."

"When were you kidnapped?"

"Around 4 years ago."

Ryukyu notices Izuku starting to fidget, clearly still traumatized by whatever was done to him while he was kidnapped. The direction that the questioning was going in seemingly starting to get on Izuku's nerves. Ryukyu decides to stop questioning him regarding his situation and start worrying about calming his nerves and figuring out what to do with him.

"Izuku, I just want you to know that you are safe now. I don't know what happened to you or why it happened, and I will not make you talk about it if you don't want to, but now that you are with me, nothing will happen to you."

Izuku tears up and gives Ryukyu a hug.

"Thank you for helping me."

Ryukyu is speechless. She feels the best thing she could do is return the hug, so she pulls Izuku tightly into her body. He seems to calm down upon the gentle contact. She doesn't know how to respond to Izuku's thanks. Ryukyu knows that her job as a hero is to help people but she already feels a much deeper connection to the kid than she thought was normal.

Soon after, Ryukyu's boss and the other members of her hero agency walk back into the room. Izuku slightly cowers behind Ryukyu but he now thinks he could trust these people. After all, every member of The Precepts of Death wore the bird mask at all times and no one was wearing a bird mask. For now, he was safe from Overhaul.

The adults all got together and started whispering stuff to each other, the whispering was too quiet for Izuku to hear what they were saying but he knew they were talking about him. All the adults shot a quick glance at Izuku before Ryukyu nodded and turned to him.

"Hey Izuku, you're gonna stay with me for now while we decide what to do with you. Do you want that?"

Izuku nodded and did what must have been as close to a smile as he could manage.

Ryukyu put her hand out to hold Izuku's hand, "Come with me Izuku, they are gonna drive us to my house. You can stay with me for a bit. I'll sit with you in the back."

Izuku follows Ryukyu into the car and settles into the comfortable seat. The overwhelming emotions of finally escaping his prison are too much for him as he begins to fall asleep once again.

Izuku is still asleep when they arrive at Ryukyu's house. She doesn't want to wake him so she carries him to one of her spare rooms.

Ryukyu is still very young and she had just moved into her house. The house is mostly painted white with only Ryukyu's room and the kitchen being decorated. She mentally thanks her friends for telling her to get the larger house with the extra rooms. This wasn't the first time she needed to use it and finances weren't a problem with her already lucrative position as a hero. Ryukyu got to the guest room and places Izuku into the bed. She puts a note on the nightstand and leaves as quietly as she could.

A few hours later Izuku wakes up screaming. Waking up in a different place than he fell asleep brings back the worst memories from his time with Overhaul. It doesn't help that the white room is similar enough to the room he previously stayed in. Wanting to be quiet, Izuku quickly stops screaming and tries to assess the situation he is in. He needed to figure out whether or not he needed to escape, and fast. Those fears are quickly dispelled as the note that Ryukyu left, floats off the nightstand and lands on Izuku's foot. It read, Hi Izuku, you fell asleep in the car. I brought you to a spare room in my house. Come outside and tell me if you want or need anything.

Upon reading the note, memories begin flooding back to Izuku. He had escaped, he is safe now.

Only a few seconds had passed since Izuku woke up and he has already forgotten that he woke up screaming. This is why he was surprised when Ryukyu rushes into the room and worryingly asks, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I forgot about what happened. The room I stayed in was white and I thought that I had been caught."

Feeling incredibly guilty over making Izuku experience his trauma, Ryukyu says, "Izuku, we should go to the kitchen. We can get to know each other and it's still pretty early in the day so I don't think you should go back to sleep. I wouldn't want you to mess up your sleep cycle."

Izuku follows Ryukyu to her kitchen, taking in the surroundings. He sees that windows lined the kitchen and that there is a door leading to the front yard. Unlike with Overhaul, this room has pictures of Ryukyu smiling with unknown people. Izuku looks at the T.V. and sees that it is 2 in the afternoon.

"So Izuku, what do you like to do for fun?"

"I haven't really had much time for fun. I've gotten good at studying and analyzing quirks though. I would spend all my free time practicing my quirk. I don't have very good control of my quirk but I can generate a lot of heat from my flames and I can regulate my body temperature very well." Izuku pointed to his scars, "They wouldn't heal the wounds that were self-inflicted so I learned how to regulate my internal temperature when producing unnaturally hot flames."

Ryukyu stays silent, Izuku is talking to her, but he doesn't seem to be thinking much about what he is saying. Ryukyu was hoping to get more information from him without having to ask questions.

"They used me to test out a quirk enhancing drug which they named Trigger. Every day they gave me a shot and my quirk would flare up. I think the drug was still in its testing stage though because each time I took the shot, I experienced the worst pain I could imagine."

Izuku starts sweating, straining at what he had to experience.

"Hey Izuku, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"I kind of got lost in thought."

 _Poor kid. Kidnapped at 4 to be a test dummy for an unfinished quirk drug. Whoever Overhaul is, he probably had to kidnap someone since this type of drug is illegal and the testing is too painful to even find a test subject. I hope I can start a conversation that doesn't lead back to his torture._

"Hey miss, what's your name? I wanna know what I should call the hero who saved me."

"My name is Ryuko Tatsuma and my hero name is Ryukyu."

Hearing the word hero reminds Izuku of just how much he loved heroes, giving him the courage to start asking more questions. "What's it like being a hero?"

"It's very hard but I really want to help people. I have a destructive quirk that many people are scared of and I want to show the world that I can use it to save people."

"Why would people be scared of your quirk? Didn't All Might say that there are no evil quirks just evil people? I don't know why anyone would think you are evil, you seem so nice. I know that you saved me and you didn't cause any destruction."

Ryukyu's heart melts at the praise. She doesn't know how long she gets to stay with Izuku, but she wants to spoil him while he is here. Trying to think of what to do, Ryukyu realizes that there was one advantage to Izuku not being exposed to the outside world for several years, all the new video games that he would have been waiting for are out now.

Ryukyu calls for Izuku to come to check out her new gaming system. The new All Might game had just come out and she had a hunch that Izuku would want to play it. She sits down on the couch and Izuku chose to sit on the floor right in front of her. He rests his head on her knee with his hair acting as a cushion for his head.

Izuku and Ryukyu settle into their respective position and play the game for hours. Izuku chose All Might as his character and would get very excited when All Might would say **I AM HERE** after he went for combos. Ryukyu chose Endeavor as her character and they breeze through the first level. Ryukyu was carrying the team as Izuku struggles to grasp the controls. Soon enough, Izuku gets more comfortable and starts beating the robots and villains alongside Ryukyu. She swears she sees him smile for an instant when he beats his first enemy on his own.

They continue playing and had beaten the first 4 levels of the game when Ryukyu notices the time is nearly 9:30. _While Izuku is big, he also said that he is only 8 years old and tomorrow is going to be a stressful day for him._ She tells him to get ready for bed and to brush his teeth. Ryukyu goes to get a spare toothbrush to give to Izuku and she leads him to the sink where he brushes his teeth. After doing so herself, she walks him to his room where she wishes him a good night and tells him that he could come to get her and wake her up at any time if he wants to.

Izuku examines the bed before getting under the covers. He notices the lack of surroundings in the room and is still a bit unsettled by this. He had always had trouble going to sleep while under Overhaul's watch and memories of his All Might plush toy resurface. Izuku spends nearly half an hour staring at the ceiling while clutching a pillow yet he is no closer to falling asleep than when he started. It doesn't take long after for Izuku to realize he can't fall asleep. Izuku recalls Ryukyu saying that he could go talk to her if he needed anything and based on the sounds he hears from the kitchen, she is still awake. As Izuku leaves his room, he peeks out of his barely open door and hears what appeared to be the end of Ryukyu's conversation on her phone.

"Thanks for wishing me a happy birthday, it's almost 10, I think I'm gonna go to sleep now. Bye."

Izuku didn't know that it was Ryukyu's birthday and feels guilty that she spent her birthday caring for him. However, that doesn't deter him from wanting to ask for one final favor for the night. He knows that he wouldn't be able to sleep, with his pillow in tow, he walks up to Ryukyu.

"I'm sorry to bother you miss Ryukyu, I didn't know today was your birthday. Happy birthday. I guess I came here to say that I can't fall asleep."

Ryukyu sees the passive child and figures he wouldn't be able to get his question out. "Do you want to sleep in my room tonight?"

Izuku's eyes lit up upon hearing the question. "Really, you'd let me?"

"Of course, if it helps you fall asleep I'd gladly let you."

Izuku beams as he rushes into Ryukyu's bed and curls into a tight ball.

Ryukyu follows, smiling. She would never admit it to anyone but she had gotten a bit lonely living by herself. As she gets under the covers Izuku grips her arm, holds it like a teddy bear and falls asleep almost immediately.

 _This kid is too precious. Best birthday ever._

The next morning Ryukyu wakes up to the sight of Izuku stretching and getting ready to get out of bed. He is surprisingly upbeat given what he had to go through the previous day. Her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of Izuku's stomach rumbling. Ryukyu turns to him to see him sheepishly smiling, covering his face. She feels bad that he is embarrassed for being hungry, but the scene is cute nonetheless. To prevent any further embarrassment, Ryukyu quickly says, "Come with me Izuku, I'll get you whatever you want for breakfast." Izuku happily complies and follows Ryukyu to the kitchen.

Three full plates and 30 minutes later, Izuku lets out a content sigh, ready to start his first full day free.

Ryukyu and the other heroes in the agency she works at agree that the day would be best spent if Ryukyu takes Izuku out to experience the world. There would be no need to get more information out of him today, the kid just needs to have some fun for once. Ryukyu thinks that the best place to take Izuku would be to a shopping mall and then to an amusement park.

Once they arrive at the mall, Izuku is immediately blown away by the size of it. It was the biggest building he had ever seen with a glass ceiling allowing the sun to light up the whole place. Every few feet, a new store with a bright display and flashy objects catch his attention.

Izuku only had a few memories of before he was kidnapped yet knows with complete certainty he never saw anything this grand.

Ryukyu glances over at Izuku and is thrilled with what she sees, he is oozing with excitement, a smile plastered on his face as his eyes dart from store to store. _If he's blown away by this, I can't wait to show him the aquarium and the action figure store. He seemed really into heroes when we were playing that game yesterday so I think he would like to look at some All Might toys. I just hope he's a bit happier once we leave._

After scanning all the stores and things to do, Izuku settles on looking at the hero exhibit. He runs over to Ryukyu and tugs on her sleeve, pointing at the hero exhibit, "Come here Miss Ryukyu, I wanna go there first."

Ryukyu gives her biggest smile before saying, "If that's what you want to do, then we will do it. Today we do whatever you want for however long you want."

Izuku enters the exhibit and is immediately met with a full-size sculpture of All Might. Izuku examines the lifelike statue and is surprised at how big All Might actually is. Izuku realizes that he didn't even reach All Might's chest as he is well over two feet taller than Izuku is. Izuku fondly notices the huge grin that spreads across All Might's face. That smile was one of the only things that kept him sane during his time with Overhaul. Whenever Overhaul would come in for more Trigger testing, Izuku would close his eyes and remember All Might's smile, thinking that everything might one day be okay. It eventually was, as the day before, Ryukyu used All Might's line of, "I am here" after he had escaped the compound. While All Might was the world's hero, Ryukyu was his hero.

Thinking about being free, Izuku wants to find a way to thank and remember her. He puts that to the back of his mind as his eyes go to examine the rest of All Might's face. The other feature of All Might's that jumps out is his hair. His hair sticks up adding to his already imposing stature. Letting civilians know that everything is going to be okay and making villains wet themselves from fear.

Izuku turns to his right and sees Ryukyu smiling at him. He notices how her hair also jumps out to him. _Once Ryukyu gets her own agency, her hair/claw that covers her right eye will turn into a symbol as well._ Her hair also gives Izuku an extra sense of comfort. He knows her quirk is powerful even though he hadn't seen it yet. Izuku has complete trust in Ryukyu to protect him if anything were to happen. Her hair shows her stoic yet caring personality. Hard and threatening on the surface yet soft and gentle to the touch.

Izuku walks to the next statue. The statue was obviously going to be of Endeavor. All Might is the world's number one hero but the only other hero who could get anywhere near All Might's level of relevance in Japan, is Japan's number 2 hero, Endeavor. While there wasn't an official world hero ranking system yet, everyone considers All Might the world's symbol of peace. He was the first hero to spend significant time in countries other than the heroes main country of work. He would even occasionally get called by the governments of other countries when they were dealing with a particularly tough villain. Endeavor meanwhile, stayed only in Japan. He wasn't as much a symbol but he had actually resolved more cases than All Might.

The statue itself is just as realistic as All Might's was. Every detail of Endeavor is shown in the sculpture in front of him. _How are they able to get his mustache and hair on fire. It's just like in real life._ Endeavor's statue doesn't convey the same sense of safety that All Might's did. Endeavor has an imposing presence and has most of his body aflame as a show of power. Izuku feels a subtle connection to Endeavor but pays it no attention as he goes to look at the rest of the statues.

Izuku and Ryukyu continue to the end of the exhibit together, having a good time as they observe the other statues. About an hour later, just as they are about to leave to go to the next exhibit, a loud explosion is heard from the ceiling of the main room. Glass shatters and falls to the ground as 2 men with bird masks crash through the ceiling where the glass used to be. Ryukyu notices that the bird masks that the men are wearing are the same exact mask that Izuku was wearing when he escaped the compound. Quickly looking at Izuku, she sees him recoil in fear, hiding behind her upon seeing the people. Ryukyu reassuringly tells Izuku, "Everything is going to be okay. You should hide behind the All Might statue. I'll go handle this." Izuku complies and gets behind the All Might statue, allowing only his eyes to not be hidden as to allow him to see the scene unfolding.

Once Ryukyu is assured that Izuku is safe, she makes a beeline outside the exhibit toward the men. Once Ryukyu arrives, she notices two heroes fighting the masked men. The heroes are almost immediately knocked out as the men with the bird masks focus their gaze towards Ryukyu. Luckily for Ryukyu, the main room of the mall was big enough for her to use the full extent of her quirk without needing to worry about collateral damage. She quickly changes into her dragon form and rushes towards the two men.

The fight is over as soon as it starts as the two men can't handle the pure power that Ryukyu possesses. She runs at the masked men and knocks them out, needing only one arm for each of them. Once the quick clash was over, the police in the mall go over to the unconscious men to detain them. They are both quickly taken away by the police.

Once the brief rush of adrenaline was over, Ryukyu reverts back to her human form and rushes back to the hero exhibit where Izuku is cowering behind the All Might statue. Upon seeing Ryukyu, Izuku brakes down in tears and runs towards her. "I'm so glad you were able to beat them. Those were some of the guys that held me captive. They must have somehow known where I was. I'm so scared. How did they find me? What if you weren't here? Would they have just taken me back?"

Ryukyu doesn't know how to respond to Izuku. She would never admit this to him, but she was pretty scared that some members of whatever organization kidnapped Izuku were able to find him so quickly. All she could do right now was comfort Izuku by giving him a hug. "I don't know what would have happened if I wasn't here. But that doesn't matter because I was here. I will always be there for you. I will always be with you and I will make sure they never take you back."

 _I'm not gonna let this kid out of my sight. I'm gonna stay with him. How could I reasonably turn my back on someone who needs saving. This kid is too precious and he has no one else. It's up to me to help him and I have an idea on the best way to do so. I just hope he is as excited about the idea as I am._

Ryukyu and Izuku decide to go back to her house to figure out what to do. Once they get inside, Ryukyu gets a call from her boss.

"Hey Ryukyu, I just got word that there was an attack at the mall where you took Izuku. Is that true?"

"It did happen. I took out both attackers before letting the police apprehend and take in the villains."

"Can you confirm whether or not these men were related to whoever kidnapped Izuku?"

"To the best of my knowledge, these men were somehow related to whatever group kidnapped Izuku. They were wearing the same bird mask that I saw him wearing right as he escaped and he said that those were two of the guys that held him captive."

"Perhaps the mask was a calling card of their organization."

"Maybe. Izuku destroyed his mask as soon as we were safely away from the compound."

"Unfortunately, that is not the main reason I called."

"What else would you need to tell me?"

"The two men that the police took in were both found dead in their respective cop cars. The cause of death for both of them was a very potent poison that kills a person when consumed. Both men had a lot of poison on their person. It makes us wonder what kind of tight leash this organization has on its members. They would kill themselves upon failure of the mission even though getting caught wouldn't even have horrible consequences. We're starting to fear this organization. I am on my way to your house along with two other heroes. We will help protect the boy and figure out the next step. Until we get there, keep the boy hidden."

"I will take him into the room until you arrive."

A few minutes later, Ryukyu hears a knock on the front door.

"Izuku stay in here while I go check that out. Don't come out unless I tell you to. Otherwise, stay hidden in the closet for as long as possible."

Ryukyu sneaks to the front door, staying low as to make it hard for someone to see inside. She looks through the window to see that it is her boss along with two of his sidekicks. The door is quickly opened as the three heroes enter the house.

Ryukyu calls out to Izuku, "Izuku, it's okay, you can come out. Come sit with us at the table."

Izuku is seen exiting Ryukyu's room and sitting down at the table.

Ryukyu's boss breaks the silence, "Izuku, I know that you're scared, but if you want us to be able to keep you safe, we're gonna need to know everything we can about whoever kidnapped you."

Izuku just nods, he knew he would have to go over the details of his torture, but he didn't think he would have to do it the day after he was free. "The organization I was kidnapped by call themselves the Precepts of Death. The leader of the group is a man who goes by the name Overhaul. All members of the Precepts of Death have sworn their lives to Overhaul. I think they wear bird masks so they won't contaminate the air that Overhaul breathes. Their main product is illegal quirk-related drug production. They made headway and perfected a drug called Trigger which temporarily increases the strength of the user's quirk by a massive margin. They were able to perfect Trigger by using me as a test subject. That's where all my burns are from. Trigger itself would attack my body whenever I used it and my flames would be significantly hotter than what I should have been able to produce. At the end of every session, Overhaul would disassemble and reassemble me after taking samples of my body. The scars and pain of the daily sessions were brutal but my body thankfully adapted so my heat tolerance is unmatched"

Ryukyu is horrified by Izuku's explanation. Right as he started his explanation, he put a blank expression on his face and it has not shifted in the slightest yet. Everyone else at the table is shocked at what the kid had gone through yet he seemed like he wasn't even close to stopping his explanation.

"They have a lot of influence and control of the criminal underground but they are not at the top. There is one group ahead of them that I was never able to hear about. I don't remember why they kidnapped me. I don't know if they know about my second quirk but I doubt it had anything to do with the kidnapping. I think they just needed an orphan that no one cared about. They just needed someone that could disappear with minimal trace and I was that person. After a few months, they stopped speaking to me and I stopped speaking entirely. I think I only have this much information because they were pretty lax talking around me near the end. They must have thought I was brain dead or something. I didn't let myself show any emotion or speak for years. I was their fucking slave. I can't give descriptions of their appearances because of the bird masks however, I doubt anyone in the organization would ever go outside without wearing some form of bird mask. Overhaul has already definitely completely moved the operation already. I just need to hide from him."

Amazed with the stoic and terrified expression that Izuku had during his explanation, Ryukyu's boss says, "Well Izuku, you have been very brave and have helped us a lot with understanding the motives behind today's attack. However, it is also clear that you are still in a lot of danger. I have a proposition that I think you will like."

Ryukyu and Izuku both answer, "What is it?" at this same time.

"Before I tell you about the good parts of my idea, I will tell you about the downsides."

Izuku responded, "Just tell me everything, this is life or death for me. I want my freedom to last more than a day."

"Okay. Assuming both you and Ryukyu agree to this, I think it would be best for Ryukyu to legally adopt you and for you to go into a government protection program."

The boss looked at Ryukyu before continuing, "I see the way you look at and talk about Izuku. It's clear as day that you care for the boy deeply."

Ryukyu smiles and nods.

Looking back at Izuku, "Of course you would also have to agree with this."

Izuku cut him off while emphatically saying, "I've always wanted a mom, I trust Ryukyu with my life. I wouldn't want to be in a family with anyone else."

The boss smiles before his face turned more serious. "In order for you to truly be safe from Overhaul, we are going to have to fake your death. This may not seem like much at first, but it would also mean that you are going to be cut off completely from your previous life. Not only will every kid at the orphanage think that you are officially dead, but any chance of meeting your biological parents is almost entirely gone."

Unsurprisingly, the already very mature eight-year-old had no problems with the plan. "I doubt my parents cared that much about me to begin with and the orphanage didn't seem to care that I was kidnapped based on what Overhaul said. Now how are you going to fake my death?"

"I will use some of my contacts and simply spread the word that you have been found and that you died from trauma shortly after the criminals at the mall attacked. We will make your death seem like a freak accident and it will make the papers. We will get some of the people at the orphanage to say they didn't even know you were found and they were so sad that you were only free for a day. Since Overhaul's men died and their mission was likely to kill or kidnap you, Overhaul would have no way of confirming or refuting the story."

Izuku thought everything over before running to Ryukyu and wrapping her in another hug, "When can I start?"

"I can get everything set up for you right now. I will get a hair stylist to come to the house and dye your hair. I will organize a new apartment for you and Ryukyu to live in. By tomorrow the story will be in the paper and you will likely never have to worry about Overhaul again. We will discreetly move you into the temporary apartment tonight."

Ryukyu and the other heroes immediately start packing up everything in the house. Izuku would have joined them in packing but he realizes that his only possessions were the clothes he was wearing. He decides to instead think about what he would want his hair to look like. He almost immediately knows what he wants. He decides on dyeing his hair green and yellow, leaving only a small streak of red. He wants his hair to be modeled after All Might and his new mother. He gets giddy thinking about how he will finally have a mother. He wonders if Ryukyu would let him call her mom. Izuku decides to stop letting his mind wander and for him to draw up what he wants his hair to look like. It would be dyed dark green on the right side with a lock of hair sticking up like All Might. On the left side, it would be dyed yellow with three locks of hair covering parts of his face just like Ryukyu's hair does. The middle group of hairs would be kept the original red.

Izuku thinks about his new look and smiles. Of the two stylists who came in, one of them had a quirk that kept soft objects in one place and the other had a quirk that let her change the color of any object. This was perfect for Izuku since he could have his hair color both changed and kept in place without the need to dye it or use gel. After having his hair changed to his liking, Izuku decides to sleep until Ryukyu is ready to leave.

Soon enough Ryukyu has everything packed and is ready to leave. Ryukyu notices Izuku's hair and smiles. She was glad he looks up to her so much. The resemblance between their hair is too great for it to be a coincidence. Once they arrive at the new apartment, Ryukyu uses the keys she was given to open the door. She and Izuku step inside before she turns to him and asks, "Ready to start the next chapter of your life?"

Izuku happily nods, "I've never been more excited."

End of Chapter 3

* * *

/30iaflA (8-year-old Izuku)

/vh4Lr4i (8-year-old Izuku with scars)

/1krBE7X (8-year-old Izuku with scars and birthmark)

* * *

Izuku going into Ryukyu's room was a reference to the anime Aishiteruze Baby, I really liked the relationships in that show and I wanted to give the anime a little shout out since no one I talk to knows about it. On another note, thinking about the fanart I made for 8-year-old Izuku makes me want to draw something of 4-year-old Izuku before he gets kidnapped. I don't know when the next chapter for this will come out, but I think that before I release the fourth chapter, I go through and thoroughly edit the first three. Write a comment on anything you like or dislike about this chapter, I like all comments and try to reply to all of them. Follow and Favorite if you liked the chapter and let me know if you want to see fanart for pre-kidnapped Izuku.

See you next time! :D


	4. New beginnings

Hello all,

Sorry about the long wait. I think the chapters have all been around one month apart and this one has been over two. Thank you to everyone who has commented, favorited and followed this work, it makes me really happy to see people reading and hopefully enjoying the fic. Without further ado, please enjoy!

Italics indicate thoughts

* * *

Endeavor woke up at 5:55 in the morning and went through the exact same routine he has been following for years. He immediately went to Shoto's room to wake him up. The workers of the house would have whatever breakfast he had asked them to prepare the day before at 6:00 and he and Shoto would eat their breakfast together for half an hour. During this half hour, they would not speak to each other, just offer brief glances. Endeavor would read the paper and he would allow Shoto to watch whatever TV show he wanted. This was the reason they never interacted in the morning. Shoto would never waste his only free time to converse with his father. However, a few minutes after Shoto had started eating breakfast, he noticed that something was off with Endeavor. The usually laser-focused Endeavor stopped reading the paper and looked at Shoto.

"We're not going to be doing any training today. I'm going to go get your mother and I am going to try and fix the mistakes I have made."

Shoto was shocked at the sudden statement. Although that shock was short-lived as it soon turned to pure happiness and excitement, "Really dad, we can get mom back?"

 _Wow, been a long time since he's called me that._

"Yes Shoto, continue eating, I will go get your siblings and we will leave."

While Shoto was ecstatic at the sudden statement, he did wonder what caused the sudden change in his father. Walking over to the newspaper, Shoto notices the headline that seemed to catch his father's attention.

 _Orphan found after being kidnapped for nearly four years;_

 _Gets killed in a villain attack the next day._

Below the headline was a picture of a 4-year-old with fiery red hair holding an All Might plush toy. Shoto felt really bad for the orphan but he wondered why this specific death would set his father off. Before he had much time to mull over the possible reasons, the door to the kitchen opened. True to his word, Endeavor returned to the kitchen with Natsuo and Fuyumi. Shoto was too happy to get his mother back to even be sad about Touya not being there.

"Before we go, I have to make a phone call. Once I am done, we will leave."

The three children all nod, not really listening whilst chatting amongst themselves.

Endeavor goes to his private office before pulling out his phone and dialing a number that doesn't register.

"Endeavor, why did you call me? We haven't spoken in years." The woman's voice becomes concerned, "Is this about Izuku? You promised you wouldn't get involved with him."

"Hello Ms. Kayama, unfortunately, the news I bring does regard Izuku."

Midnight snaps back, "You promised you would stay away from him."

"I have stayed away from him. I came across news of him reading the newspaper and didn't know if you wanted to discuss these circumstances."

Midnight's voice wavered. Her concern was even more apparent now, "What did you find?"

"It appears Izuku is dead. I'm very upset that this happened to us." Endeavor tries to sound sympathetic, "I thought that you would prefer to hear about this from me rather than coming across it in the paper as I did. I don't know whether your generation still reads the paper but it was not a pleasant thing to see."

Midnight immediately bursts into tears. "Thank you for letting me know." Despite technically being her baby-daddy, Midnight still doesn't know how to address Endeavor. She is too removed from his life to break down whilst talking to him. "While I am deeply saddened by what happened, I can't blame you for it."

Endeavor responds with a paralyzing conviction, "I will use my contacts to try and find whoever was behind this and one day I will end them."

"Get these fuckers. Don't let them live after what they did to poor little Izuku."

"I will never give up. These guys are going to be dealt with no matter how long it takes. I'll update you on any leads or new information I find."

"Thank you Endeavor. Bye"

Midnight hangs up the phone and completely breaks down. She just goes back into her bed and doesn't leave for a long time.

Even though he would never show it, Endeavor was horribly sad. He had let his child die. If Endeavor had just taken the hit from the potential public scandal, the kid could have been raised in a real home. If he didn't blackmail Midnight, she would have just raised the child normally. Another kid was gone and it was his fault. Why was he chasing the ultimate power if he couldn't even protect his own flesh and blood! The only way he could start to make this right was to get his family back together, he was going to get his wife back.

(Overhaul ends up believing the story because he sent his men to find Izuku and bring him back or kill him. Since the men are dead, Overhaul assumes the mission was a success and stops looking for Izuku.)

Back to Izuku and Ryukyu...

Ryukyu and Izuku decide to not unpack when they get to the new apartment. They take four pillows a blanket and search for the nearest bed. Despite Izuku's enthusiasm, he and Ryukyu both fall asleep within seconds of laying down.

The next morning after everything is unpacked, Ryukyu and Izuku are ready to finally start their new life together. They both know that the first step to starting their new life was to make sure they had the energy to make it through the day. Unfortunately for the both of them, when Ryukyu said she brought everything, that meant all non-perishable items. The apartment was very big with 6 bedrooms, 3 floors, and a pool, yet there was not a speck of food anywhere.

While Ryukyu could have taken the easy route and just ordered food, she really wanted to get Izuku to adjust to normal society. She figured now would be as good a time as any to take him out to eat but feared that he would be too scared to leave the house... especially after what happened at the mall yesterday. While Izuku would be safe outside the house, and she would make sure of that, convincing him to actually leave would likely be a challenge. In her thoughts, however, she failed to remember that Izuku has been with her the whole time, watching her stare at the cabinets for almost a minute straight.

"Ms. Ryukyu, what are we going to do for breakfast?"

"I don't know Izuku. I forgot to bring food to this apartment."

Izuku frowns as he tries to mull over his options. Overhaul had always just left food at his door, he hadn't had to think about this in a while.

Ryukyu speaks in a hopeful tone, "We could we go to a restaurant to get food? It's probably been a while since you've gone to a restaurant to eat and I don't want to have to clean dishes when we're done."

"I don't think I've ever been to a restaurant, but I don't wanna leave the house. If it would really make it easier for you, I guess we can go."

Beaming, Ryukyu responds, "I would love for us to go to a restaurant for breakfast. After we eat, we could even go to the store and get you some clothes. The store will have a lot of toys, I'll get you whatever toys you want."

Izuku starts jumping like an excited puppy, "Really? I can get whatever I want? I haven't ever had my own toy. If there are new games out, they probably have a bunch of new actions figures as well." Izuku returns to his previous stoic personality, "How can I be sure that it will be safe?"

"I know that you have had a tough life so far, but I will make sure that it is only fun from here on out. There will be no more villain attacks, and if there are, I'll protect you as I did before. However, if you want toys to make it more fun, I will get you whatever you want." Ryukyu leans in to whisper, "There are many advantages to being a hero, one of the big ones is that I have a lot of money, money we can spend on toys."

"If you promise it will be safe, I believe you." Izuku smiles again as he begins to drool, "I want to try pancakes...and waffles… and french toast… and muffins. I was given the same food every day for breakfast, it got boring. I want to eat something yummy."

"I will get you the yummiest food I can find! We can leave right now."

Ryukyu sends a quick message to her agency to heavily patrol the area. No villain will get close to them this time.

Izuku and Ryukyu arrive at the diner and get settled into their booth. Ryukyu tells Izuku to get everything that he wants. She figured that she could worry about his diet and getting regular habits down once he is settled into normal life. Right now getting him as happy as possible would be her only goal. So far, it seemed like she was succeeding if his constant smile and stream of excited questions was anything to go by. His smile only widened when the waitress came to the table, somehow managing to balance everything that Izuku ordered on both her arms. This feat was very impressive considering Izuku ordered one of every waffle and pancake option. Ryukyu didn't want Izuku's lack of education to mean that he didn't know the difference between waffles and pancakes. She was about to school him on the pros and cons of each and figure out what kind of person he was. Ryukyu pulled out a notebook with a pros and cons list of both foods earning a laugh from Izuku over the pseudo-seriousness of the lesson.

Ryukyu first went over the different toppings on the table, showing Izuku the maple syrup and the whipped cream. Izuku already knew about maple syrup but he was very intrigued by the whipped cream. Ryukyu noticed his fixation on the reddi-wip and decides to playfully spray some in his mouth, or at least she tries to. The nozzle brakes as she presses on it, making the whipped cream fly right back at her. Ryukyu didn't have time to dodge as the side of her face not covered by hair was soon covered in whipped cream. Izuku started howling in laughter at the sight of his guardian. Deciding to capitalize on her blunder Ryukyu looks at Izuku and jokingly asks, "Do I have anything on my face?" This was the first joke Eight-year-old Izuku heard in nearly four years and his laughter intensified until he was left gasping for air. He had forgotten how much he missed the childish humor of normal life until he experienced it. He is really glad that he could joke with Ryukyu, make noise, and no one gets mad at him for it.

Ryukyu decided to continue taking the cream to the face in stride as she continued her waffle vs. pancake comparison without wiping it off.

While Izuku is still undecided at the end on the waffle vs pancake argument, he knows that he really likes both of them. It helps that he had a lot of fun being with Ryukyu. He felt like when he was with her, everything seemed right. This new family dynamic felt natural. Ryukyu may not have been his biological mother, but Izuku knows that soon enough he will be comfortable enough to start calling her mom.

The next thing to do would be to get Izuku clothes. This was easy since Izuku didn't have trouble finding clothes he liked. He still really liked heroes and the majority of the clothing he picked out were All Might or Endeavor themed shirts and pants. Because he wore size thirteen, the clothing had cool action shots instead of the cute designs that were on the smaller clothing. Only needing a sweatshirt, something caught Izuku's eyes and he started running towards it. When Izuku returned to Ryukyu, she was surprised to see that he was holding a sweatshirt with herself on it. Apparently, her latest takedown of the criminals at the mall did wonders to her popularity and Ryukyu themed clothes were already in production and in stores. Izuku was very satisfied with his decision to choose this sweatshirt and started wearing it as soon as they left the clothing store. He felt safe around her and she had already shown that her strength and skill was enough to protect him.

The next step was to find toys and other items that Izuku would want. This task was again made easier by Izuku's love for heroes as he quickly settled on the signature All Might action figure and the signature Endeavor action figure. Behind the All Might action figures, Izuku saw three different action figures of a hero. When he pulled the action figures toward him, he immediately recognized the hero from his signature goggles and capture tape. Izuku was amazed that a store would have Eraserhead merchandise as he was an underground hero that not many knew about. Izuku only knew about Eraserhead since Overhaul was so interested in him. _If Overhaul didn't like this hero, he must have been a pretty good guy._ _These figures are probably ultra rare and no one knows that because they don't even realize who this is._ Izuku decided to take all three Eraserhead action figures and thanked his eyes for spotting them behind All Might. Izuku spent a few minutes looking for Ryukyu themed action figures but couldn't find any.

Izuku looks at Ryukyu and speaks, "As soon as you get your own action figure, I'm gonna get it. I can't have an action figure collection of the best heroes without having my hero there."

Ryukyu smiles as she tries not to shed a tear. This just further confirmed that she would destroy anyone who tried to cause him any harm.

Now that they are finished shopping for toys and clothes, the final destination is for Izuku to find decorations for his room. Izuku couldn't think of what he wants to put in his room. All he knows is that he won't be able to fall asleep unless he is exhausted. The psychological effects of being tortured every morning made falling asleep a bit of a challenge and he didn't figure that would change.

Izuku finds a lava lamp and a night light that he thought looked cool but he wanted to eliminate anything in his new room that remind him of Overhaul. He immediately thinks of the whiteness of his room. That room was a void of nauseatingly white nothingness. It was exactly what one would expect from a serial killer, which in Overhaul's case, is fairly accurate. The best way to counter the sickening feeling that Izuku would get from an all-white room would be to have a room overloaded with colors.

Almost immediately, Izuku jolts to action. He knows exactly which colors he wants his room to be. Without saying anything, Izuku picks out a couple of yellow paint samples and holds them next to Ryukyu's hair, settling on a color that was the exact same shade. He then takes out the same green that he chose for half of his hair and the fiery red that he was born with. The only other thing Izuku wanted for his room was a full-sized mirror and Ryukyu already had an extra one at the house.

Right as Izuku and Ryukyu are about to leave the store, something catches Izuku's eye. It is a pillow with a V-shaped tuft of hair. As Izuku looks below the yellow tufts, he gets excited recognizing it as the same type of All Might plush toy that he had back at the orphanage. With the recognition of the same plush toy he slept with, a flood of memories come back to Izuku of when he was younger. He remembers that he had always relied on the plush toy to fall asleep. Even before his kidnapping, Izuku had been an insomniac until he got his All Might pillow. He had new reasons to fear sleep, but Izuku felt like this would definitely help. It was a little childish, but Izuku was still a child. If sleeping with a plush toy would help him, he would be foolish to not do so.

After buying the plush toy and getting back home, Izuku and Ryukyu decide to eat lunch before decorating Izuku's room. Izuku and Ryukyu bring in a large credenza desk and a chair to the sizable room and places the desk in the corner next to the door. Izuku places his five action figures on the shelf hanging on the wall above his bed. The flat screen T.V. will be placed next to the closet, across from an egg chair with two bean bag chairs. On the wall across the closet, there is a succulent on the windowsill. The final thing that Izuku wanted to put in his room was the lava lamp. He placed that In the corner in the room that was between the bed and the closet. The last thing Izuku had to do was paint the room. By now it was time for dinner and Izuku and Ryukyu decided to order pizza for delivery. They got three pizzas: regular, pepperoni, and vegetable. Izuku ate all the regular and pepperoni pizza and split the vegetable pizza with Ryukyu.

After dinner, Izuku and Ryukyu get to the fun part of room setup. They finally get to paint the room. Unfortunately for them, they realize that they should have painted the room before setting up the furniture. They had to spend an extra hour moving the furniture closer to the center of the room so they could paint all the walls. Now they could finally get to the fun part. Izuku may have been a relative powerhouse, but he was still eight and uncoordinated so Ryukyu made him wear a smock before he could get started. To prove that Izuku was allowed to get the smock dirty, Ryukyu dipped a paint roller in the red and painted the smock much to the amusement of Izuku. Ryukyu insisted on painting the door as well as the edges and middle part of the room, allowing Izuku to fill in the gaps. Izuku had a lot of fun painting his room with Ryukyu. The whole process took a while but the room ended up looking exactly like Izuku hoped it would. He finally had his own room to sleep in. It was 10 and Izuku was exhausted. They didn't want to wait for the paint to dry before they moved all the furniture back so they decided it was time to sleep. Izuku brushed his teeth before walking sluggishly to his bed. After getting tucked in by Ryukyu, Izuku grabbed his All Might plush toy and began drifting off to sleep.

The next morning Izuku woke up and noticed that all the furniture in his room, other than his bed, was moved to where he wanted it to be. Confused at the minor change in scenery, he decided to follow his nose where he found Ryukyu in the kitchen with a basket of fruits and some eggs.

"Oh hi Izuku, It was starting to get late so I was about to wake you up. Good morning."

Izuku turns his head and glances at the clock which reads 10:27. _Oh wow, I slept over twelve hours._

"Good morning Ryukyu. What's the plan for today?"

"Well about that, the heroes from my agency are going to be here at eleven to discuss our plan going forward. Do you want to help me with breakfast?"

"Sure, I've never been allowed to cook before. What do you want me to do?"

"I've already decorated the fruits so I will teach you how to make an omelet."

"Is an omelet made of eggs?"

Ryukyu flashes a smile and nods, "Could you bring me a bowl, a pan, and a whisk?"

"I would get it for you, but I don't know what a whisk is."

"A whisk is a utensil with a long, narrow handle with a series of wires loops joined at the end."

After rummaging through the cabinet, Izuku emerges with a handful of cooking supplies. "Here's all the stuff. Could you show me how to make it now?"

Chuckling at his childish enthusiasm, Ryukyu begins to cook. "Sure, come look here. First, you spray a small amount of oil on the pan to make sure the egg doesn't stick. Then you crack the egg. Then you use the whisk until the egg is just one color. Finally, you pour the egg mixture into the pan and wait for it to go from clear to a solid color."

"That's pretty easy."

"Well Izuku, eggs are pretty basic."

After making more eggs, Ryukyu hears the doorbell ringing. The other heroes at the agency Ryukyu work at, come inside and sit down at the table. Ryukyu's boss starts off the conversation.

"Hey Izuku, I wanted to discuss what you will do in the future to stay safe and integrate yourself back into normal society."

"Only if I get to continue to stay with Ryukyu." Izuku begins giggling, "She's really nice."

"Of course Izuku. You are going to be living with Ryukyu for the rest of your childhood. She adopted you."

Izuku refocused, "So what are we going to be discussing specifically?"

"We will talk about your future schooling and how you will stay hidden from the Precepts. As for you Ryukyu," he says as he turns towards Ryukyu, "we will work out a schedule for when you should start coming back to work."

Ryukyu responds, "Shouldn't I just come back to work the day Izuku starts school? That way our schedules would be aligned."

Ryukyu's boss answers, "That was my plan. I would like to get Izuku starting in school in two weeks on Monday and you will come back to work that day. Now, we will need measurements of Izuku and a full quirk assessment so we can create a profile of you."

Ryukyu nodded in agreement before saying, "Now based on what Izuku said, Overhaul and the Precepts obviously know that Izuku has a fire and sleeping gas quirk. However, Izuku's former public file for was changed to say that he was completely quirkless so we can have his current file just be honest about his quirk, correct?"

Ryukyu's boss responded, "Correct. Based on our investigation, we were able to determine that Overhaul hacked into the database of Izuku's orphanage and changed Izuku's file. However, Overhaul wouldn't be able to hack into the government's files of every person in Japan which means he wouldn't be able to access the files. Even if he were somehow able to get access to the government's database, Overhaul thinks Izuku is dead and there are too many fire quirks for him to ever find Izuku. We'll also mess up his file in ways that'll make him impossible to track."

One of the other heroes says, "So we just need to make the people around Izuku to know that he has a quirk, so no civilians connect him as the same Izuku that was just killed. But we don't want him to show off his quirk since he can't be making a buzz."

Ryukyu states, "Now all we need is to get a profile on him and get him ready for school." She turns to Izuku before asking, "Did you get any schooling while you were kidnapped?"

Izuku responded, "Overhaul gave me textbooks for two years of a school curriculum, but eventually I gave up on it. I never thought I was getting out and was always too tired to do any learning. I can read but that's about it."

Ryukyu responded, "Don't worry about it. The first year of school will be a challenge but you will be able to get through it. We want to get you caught up by the time the next school year starts in April. We will be giving you supplementary courses to make up all that you missed. You don't even need to pass this year."

Izuku responded, "What's the point of me even going then?"

Ryukyu's boss responded, "We just want to get you accustomed to regular life. Also, once Ryukyu is back to being a hero, we wouldn't be able to have someone watch you. Now we're gonna ask you some questions and then test exactly what your quirk is."

Izuku was surprisingly bored at the nature of the questions. For the most part, these questions seemed like questions that were needed for his official file. Izuku didn't realize that the first set of questions was so Ryukyu could legally adopt Izuku. He got a pleasant surprise when Ryukyu's boss said, "Ryuko Tatsuma is now legally your mother. Your name will be officially changed from Izuku to Izuku Tatsuma."

With that, the questioning ended and the beginning of the physical examination began. Izuku followed Ryukyu and the other heroes to the training room in the apartment complex.

After measuring Izuku, Ryukyu asks, "Are you sure you're only 8 years old? You're already 4 foot 11 inches tall."

"I'm pretty sure. You've seen my file. I'm as sure as anyone can be that I was born on July 15th a little over 8 years ago. Does anyone really remember their birth?"

One of the other heroes there said, "He's no string bean either, he weighs 95 pounds and it's mostly muscle. This kid is gonna be huge when he grows up. I wonder if his quirk is as powerful as his body appears to be."

Ryukyu's boss looks at Izuku, "Could you please describe your quirk for your official record?"

"My quirk is that I can create and manipulate flames and can release a poisonous gas. When my quirk first manifested, I would still burn myself if I made my flames as hot as I could, but I don't think I ever hurt myself with my gas. When Trigger was used on me, my body wasn't able to adjust to the unnaturally high temperatures that I produced, and the gas made me a little drowsy. Since they didn't perfect Trigger until near the end of when I was there, my body was forced to adapt to unnaturally high temperatures. By the end though, no matter how hot the flames I produced were, my internal temperature stayed the same."

Ryukyu's boss seemed somewhat impressed, "Flames and some gas eh, powerful stuff, let's see how hot you can go. We should probably also test what that gas is made of, don't want for you to use it if it's dangerous for other people."

The two heroes that came with Ryukyu's boss take out two machines from bags that Izuku didn't even realize we're there. One of the machines was a practice dummy with a temperature sensor and the other was basically a vacuum with a funnel attached to it. Izuku almost laughed upon seeing the highly cartoonish device but noticed how complex the wiring was inside the transparent tube.

"I assume that I should release my gas into the tube and try and burn the test dummy."

With a laugh, the boss responds, "Wow, the kid has brains and brawn."

Izuku let out a disgruntled sigh before taking up a stance, "All of you should step back."

After everyone was far enough away, Izuku put his hand out, releasing a stream of pinkish gas. He didn't have great control of the gas but he could somewhat control the general direction the gas went. After around a minute the machine made a dinging noise, signaling that the machine had enough gas to analyze what it consisted of. Izuku waited for the results before walking to the dummy. He was surprised when he learned that his quirk wasn't a poisonous gas but rather a gas that contained weak psychic waves which tricked the brain into falling asleep. Izuku was pleasantly surprised at the nature of the quirk. He could use it on people without causing any damage. Izuku then looks at the dummy before igniting his whole body in red flames.

Ryukyu whispers to her boss, "I didn't know he could make such hot flames."

Her comment is interrupted when Izuku says, "I'd step further back if I were you, I'm about to crank up the heat."

The heroes jaws drop as Izuku begins seriously heating up. After about 20 seconds of gathering heat, the flames surrounding Izuku turn blue. Izuku loses control of the flames as a plume of fire shoots out every direction. The heroes are barely able to dodge as the fire quickly spreads throughout the room, singeing the walls.

Ryukyu's boss is shocked by Izuku's power but stays composed as he looks at the machine analyzing the small amount of fire that actually burned the dummy. The temperature that registers is much higher than expected but not surprising given what he felt.

Looking at Ryukyu, the boss whispers, "How is he with needles? I would like to do a full examination."

"I wouldn't know more than you do yet, he might be willing to do it. If I ask him I think he'll be more receptive."

Ryukyu walks toward Izuku, "So Izuku... In order to make this a full examination, we would also like to get your blood and swabs from your cheek. Is that okay?" Seeing Izuku's pensive expression gets Ryukyu nervous, "I mean you really don't have to if you don't want."

"I guess I'll do it... I trust you."

Izuku sits down in a chair as one of the heroes emerges with a toolbox full of medical equipment. Taking the blood is easy enough, Izuku closes his eyes and grips Ryukyu's hand as the blood gets taken from his veins. The next part is much more difficult. As soon as the swab touches the inside of Izuku's mouth, he goes completely limp, passing out.

The heroes all panic as they rush around Izuku. Ryukyu checks his pulse while frantically looking for what went wrong.

The commotion stops as soon as the boss speaks, "You all need to calm down. The kid is probably just super stressed. We already got what we needed so we need to make this environment as relaxed as possible when he wakes up."

Izuku wakes up and quickly orients himself, remembering where he is. He hears the calming voice of Ryukyu as he turns to his left.

"You did great Izuku. We're done now. We won't need to get anything else from you."

Izuku smiles. "I'm glad. I hated it."

Right as Ryukyu's boss is about to leave, he motions for Ryukyu to come with him.

"I have to wonder how a kid like this ended up as an orphan in the first place. He seems perfectly healthy and he has an incredibly strong quirk. Since we definitively know that he was in an orphanage, we won't check for any relatives. We want this Izuku to be off the records."

Ryukyu nods and the boss leaves.

The next day, Ryukyu gets a call from Nezu.

"Hello Ms. Tatsuma, congratulations on the adoption. I hope the apartment is to your liking. I have called to talk about Izuku's test results."

"I figured as much."

"He has amazing potential as a hero and I just want to make sure that he follows some sort of exercise routine. I won't force him to be a hero if he doesn't want to be, but he has the body, quirk, and backstory to tip the scales further in the heroes favor."

"I'll see if he wants to be a hero but I won't make him do anything he doesn't want to do."

"That's all I can ask for. Keep me notified on his progress and have a nice day."

As Nezu gets off the phone, we see All Might sitting across from him.

"Nezu, who were you talking to? You have that maniacal grin that makes me grateful you are on the hero side. Are you talking about the mystery kid you won't tell me about? Is this who think will be my successor?"

"I was talking about the mystery kid. As for whether he will end up as you successor, perhaps he will be."

"No need to be so cryptic, I'm sure you could've made that call at any time. Has this mystery kid shown a serious drive to be a hero?"

Nezu starts laughing as some tea spills from his cup, "The kid doesn't even know if he wants to be a hero."

All Might spits out his tea in shock, "My successor will probably have to be the one to take down All For One, you shouldn't be making a joke out of this."

"Oh, I assure you I'm taking this seriously. Let's just call this a hunch, I have a good feeling about him." Nezu completely changes his tone, "Have you thought about my offer of becoming a teacher?"

"I'm in my prime still, I have no need to look for a successor right now. My duty as the number one hero is still my top priority. If I start slowing down, I'll let you know."

"I don't want you to miss out on the perfect successor just because you can keep on going. I promise that you'll like this kid if you ever meet him."

Right as All Might is about to exit, he turns around and looks at Nezu, "I trust your instincts Nezu, I hope to someday meet this kid."

"I'm sure you will."

 _This kid may not yet have the drive to be a hero, but he has a serious drive. He must have the same kind of crazy that All Might or Endeavor have. I have read the reports and there is no way that any kid should have been able to escape from that place. We checked the labyrinth that he was held captive in and while it was abandoned, it was a complete maze. This one kid made an entire organization uproot their base of operation while maintaining his safety. He is a strategic mastermind and will soon have a huge grudge against villainy and the system. I won't let you meet this kid yet All Might. I believe in this kid, but nothing is certain... Now, onto the next piece of the puzzle. Quite suspicious for an 8-year-old orphan to have a similar quirk to Endeavor and Midnight around 9 years after Endeavor wanted to anonymously recommend Midnight for the hero course. Midnight might have a risqué public persona but she is by no means a bad person. She wouldn't give up a child for no reason. I won't compare his DNA to Endeavor or Midnight so I can plausibly deny making this connection. Now I won't directly say anything to Midnight since I did promise to keep Izuku safe, but I can make sure they have their fated meeting someday. I was thinking about added her as staff anyways but this clusterfuck is going to be fun to watch. I have one more call to make._

Nezu gets a maniacal smile and begins laughing. He spills tea all over the floor as he gets caught up in his plan.

Hearing her phone ring, Midnight wipes her tears as she lazily throws her blanket off her bed. She clears her throat until she is certain her voice is back to normal. This would be the first time she had spoken to anyone other than Present Mic or Eraserhead since she learned of Izuku's death. Picking up her phone, she sounds very nasally as she answers.

"Hello, who is this?"

"Hello Midnight, this is Principal Nezu. I hope you are feeling okay, you don't sound that great. Anyways, I would like to offer you a position as a teacher at U.A., you would be a wonderful addition to our staff. Eraserhead has been working here for a while and we're gonna bring on Present Mic next year.

"Just have a bit of a cold. I'll accept the job offer."

"I'm surprised you'd accept so quickly, are you sure you don't want to think it over?"

"I'm fairly certain, I could use a change of scenery _."_

"I am certainly glad. We could use a skilled hero such as yourself!"

"I guess I'll come over to sign the contract sometime soon."

"It'll be waiting. Bye."

Two weeks have passed and Izuku is getting ready to go to school. Ryukyu had spent the two weeks taking Izuku out to experience the world and getting him ready for school by improving his reading and math skills.

"Mom I'm nervous about school tomorrow."

"Don't worry Izuku, I'm sure you'll do fine in school. Right now I don't care about your grades. I just want you to have fun and get used to going to school. Plus I'm sure you'll do well with the ladies."

"Come on mom, I'm only 8."

"I know, I'm just messing with you. I can walk you to your school since it's on the way to my office but you'll need to go to bed early since you'll have to wake up tomorrow."

"I guess you're right. I'll go to sleep now. Goodnight mom."

"Goodnight Izuku."

The next morning, Ryukyu wakes up extra early to make a special breakfast for Izuku. She was told to start getting him used to everyday life but she loved spoiling him. Ryukyu was a little tired from waking up an hour earlier than she planned, but it was all worth it when she sees Izuku's smile.

Ryukyu was definitely surprised when she ended up adopting Izuku. No nineteen-year-old expects to come back from a hero patrol and return with an eight-year-old son. That's what made dropping him off at school that much weirder. In the two weeks that she has known Izuku, she had seen the strength of his will and kindness in his heart. She had already grown very fond of Izuku and loved him like any mother would love her child. Now, after just two weeks of knowing him, she had to drop him off at school for the first time. The entirety of their pre school-life familial bonding had to be condensed into two weeks. So, weird was one way to describe the experience of having to separate with your child for the first time.

As they got to the school gates, Ryukyu pulls Izuku in for a hug, not fully ready to send him off to the outside world.

"I'll be right here in this exact spot the second your school is done. I made sure my boss let me take a break at three today so I can walk you to my office. Remember to be safe and have fun."

Izuku hugs Ryukyu one final time.

"Thank you mom; for everything."

With that, Izuku lets go of Ryukyu and turns around, quickly blending in with the masses of students as he enters the school.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I think this was definitely my most polished chapter in terms of grammar and overall flow. Hopefully, it didn't get too tedious. Future chapters will have more going on. I still plan on editing the first three chapters to make them better and more readable. Lastly, the formatting for this chapter was a little different. Please let me know if you like this formatting more, I think the extra spaces make it easier to read. Please comment, favorite, and follow if you enjoy. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

See you next time :D


	5. Fanart Chapter

Hi all,

I went back and edited the first couple of chapters. From now on, the quality of the work will be much better. Unfortunately, as much as I tried to actually get the fanart on to this website, I learned that it was impossible. I posted the four pieces of fanart to Archive Of Our Own. I doubt this link will work, but you might as well try it. It would be archiveofourown /works/16526282/chapters/40745654

If the link doesn't work, just google the chapter. The fic is also titled candle in the wind on Archive of Our Own.

The next update will definitely be a chapter :D


	6. Aldera school system

I can't believe that this story has 300 Favorites and 400 Follows, I'm blown away by the support for this fic. I'm so sorry this took so long to post. I'm really going to try to start posting more consistently. For now, I hope you enjoy the chapter, I'll have more things to say in the notes at the end.

Italics indicate thought

* * *

Izuku waits outside of his class as his teacher speaks to the students inside. He is playing with the sleeves of his shirt, nervous about his first school experience. The bell rings and the teacher begins speaking to the kids inside.

"Alright class, today we have a special treat. Outside the class right now, we have a transfer student."

Izuku peers inside to gauge the reaction where he sees a visibly annoyed student with spiky blond hair give a sarcastic retort, "Come on teach, what kid would want to transfer to this shithole of a school?"

The teacher looks mildly upset but doesn't lose her temper, "Now now Bakugou. I think you might be pleasantly surprised with this student." The teacher then turns to Izuku and quietly says, "Come in now Izuku, introduce yourself."

As Izuku walks into the room, he is immediately met with gasps of surprised students. It had been so long since he has been around people in his age group that he forgot just how big he is by comparison. Izuku quickly looks around the class to see that everyone is staring at him with starry eyes... He notices that even the ashy blond student who spoke before has a hint of intrigue.

"Alright Izuku, tell everyone your name, your quirk, and what you want to do when you grow up."

Izuku stares at the ground at bites his shirt. "My name is Izuku Tatsuma... I guess I haven't named my quirk, but it is fire manipulation quick that also has the ability to produce a mild sleep-inducing psychic wave. As for what I want to do; I want to help people when I grow up so I dream of being a pediatrician."

Subconsciously hoping for approval, Izuku's eyes gaze towards Bakugou who, knowing the immense range of strength that different fire quirks can have, is now mildly interested in seeing Izuku show off his quirk.

He lets his sentiment be known when he screams towards Izuku, "Yo, new kid. Let's see your fire quirk then show us your sleeping gas."

Izuku agrees and quickly ignites his body with flames. He then makes two weak fireballs and spins them around his body to show the pyrokinetic aspect of his quirk. As Izuku is about to release his gas, the teacher freaks out.

"Izuku, don't use that in the class, you could hurt the students. There might be side effects of your gas."

Right as the teacher finishes, Bakugou looks smugly right at her, "Will you shut up teach. The new kid clearly said it was a psychic wave. Are you fucking incompetent? Just because I said it was sleeping gas doesn't mean that's what it literally is. That means it only tricks the brain into falling asleep, it doesn't force the brain to fall asleep. There are definitely no side effects. Let me see his fucking quirk."

Izuku is shocked at Bakugou's display. Had it not been for his spot on analysis, Izuku would have only been able to think about the fact that an eight-year-old continues to berate a teacher and not get in any trouble. Wow, I didn't expect that from the class asshole. He was able to figure out the nature of my quirk when the teacher could not. I guess there's more to him than I thought.

Izuku snaps out of his thoughts and looks at the teacher, politely saying, "Bakugou is correct ma'am. The quirk has no side effects and doesn't cause any long term damage. It's completely safe to use on people."

Bakugou grins. "Of course I'm fucking right. Now show me the goddamn quirk before I die of old age."

Izuku quickly complies. He rolls up his sleeve, revealing his harshly scarred arm, and releases a cloud of gas which quickly spreads throughout the classroom. After about fifteen seconds, all of the girls in the class start to become drowsy. The teacher, however, and all the boys in the class, are completely unaffected by the gas.

Before Izuku could think about why his quirk only worked on the girls in the class, he sees an explosion coming from the palms of Bakugou which destroys everything on the desk next to his and breaks most of the wood. Izuku then witnesses Bakugou shoo away the kid who used to sit there before calling out to Izuku.

"Hey new kid, come sit here. You might just be interesting enough to be worth my time."

Izuku reluctantly complies, he doesn't want to start trouble. Sure enough, a new desk is brought into the room and Izuku sits in it with the displaced person moving to the back.

After the initial commotion, the real lesson begins. Bakugou leans back in his chair and falls asleep, allowing Izuku to actually focus on what the teacher will say, and not have to deal with Bakugou's shenanigans.

The rest of the day is uneventful. Izuku gets shown around the school during lunch and the teacher announces a test that will be the next day but nothing else happens. Soon enough, the clock strikes three. Izuku gathers his few belongings and runs out the door. He doesn't want to have to deal with Bakugou and he doesn't want to keep his mother waiting.

Sure enough, Ryukyu is waiting exactly where she said she would be. Izuku sprints towards her and excitedly shouts, "Hi mom, you really made it!"

Ryukyu has a warm smile and responds calmly. "Of course I came. I said I would, didn't I."

Izuku smiles, "How were you able to get time off though, are you able to know when villains attack?"

The question is too innocent for Ryukyu and she fails to stifle a small laugh, "We can't know when there are going to be villain attacks but we have shifts when we do patrols. However, if I witnessed a crime right now, it would be my duty to act even though I would not be on an official patrol since I am an officially licensed hero."

Izuku nods, absorbing all the Ryukyu says. "How far away is your office?"

"It's only like a ten minute walk. I'll make sure that either I or one of the other three heroes from the agency get you for the first few weeks. Did you have fun at school?"

Izuku deadpanned, "It was better than getting tortured." Ryukyu laughs at the comment, surprised that Izuku is already able to joke about his torture.

Ryukyu quickly responds, "I don't know if you'll ever enjoy school, but as long as you tolerate it, it'll be fine."

"As long as I can avoid some kid named Katsuki Bakugou, the school won't be too bad. The kid seems like an angry bully but he has the highest test scores in the school by 15% and he has a very strong quirk."

"Just try to avoid him if you can."

"I don't know if I can but I'll do my best."

After around eight more minutes of walking, the duo arrives at a six-story building covered in tinted windows.

"This is it, I hope you like it because you'll be spending pretty much all of your time here."

Izuku sarcastically responds, "I had a feeling this was it with that giant picture of your bosses face plastered on the top of the building."

Ryukyu chuckles at the unexpected albeit unfunny humor, "Keep up the sarcastic comments and you'll have fun here. Just make sure you study hard while you are here so you can catch up in school. Make sure to call for us if you need anything."

Inside, Izuku looks around the building, finding it much more spacious than it appears from the outside. The building has a large modern lounge as well as a fully stocked gym and a separate quirk training room. Izuku tries his best to ignore all the high-tech equipment in the gym and he instead goes to the lounge beginning to work his way through the countless textbooks he needs to read if he wants to ever resemble a passable student.

After five hours of non-stop studying, Ryukyu comes down to the lounge to tell him that she is done with her work and it is time for them to go home.

The next day, Izuku and Ryukyu enjoy their breakfast together like they had each day since Izuku's escape. Any doubts about how close they were would immediately be dispelled if anyone actually saw them together. This closeness brought a familiarity between the two as Ryukyu has become used to Izuku's muttering and curiosity. She could tell that the anxiety that was present in Izuku about him going to school the day before was no longer there as the entire walk was a barrage of questioning. Ryukyu thought that she paid close attention to her hero work but Izuku's attention to detail still blows her away. She had not once thought about the material her costume was made out of and she never thought about trying to breathe fire, yet Izuku had convinced her that she should be able to do it with her increased lung capacity and heat resistance. Unfortunately, these are thoughts for later as the two arrive at the school. Izuku gives Ryukyu a hug before scampering into the school, unaware of a certain blond haired student watching him.

Izuku walks into the classroom and is directly followed by Bakugou. The two open desks are the seat that Bakugou is sitting in and the seat right next to him. Any optimism Izuku has about possibly avoiding Bakugou is gone as his seating position appears to be permanent. Izuku uneventfully sits down in the desk next to Bakugou.

Izuku turns as Bakugou raucously calls to him, "Yo new kid. We have a test today, let's see if you have the brains to match your quirk. Nobody in this dumbass school can challenge my scores at all, I have high hopes for you."

In a voice too quiet for Bakugou to hear, Izuku responds, "I'm not looking to challenge you."

Before Bakugou could mention a different way that he is great and everybody else sucks, the teacher starts the class and hands out the test. The test is on all the math and history that the class has done over the past two months and Izuku only knows what he heard the day before. Izuku is a smart kid, but he fails the test miserably as he is still years behind his peers in terms of learning the subjects.

The world hasn't and still doesn't give Izuku any breaks as the teacher decides that the tests would be graded by whoever was sitting next to you. Izuku holds out some hope that the person grading his test would be the other person sitting next to him but the world is far too cruel. With each answer that the teacher calls out, Izuku sees that Bakugou has answered correctly. He could also see Bakugou's growing frustration as Izuku knows that he had answered almost all of the questions incorrectly.

When the test is finally over, Bakugou has unsurprisingly gotten every single question correct. Izuku just hopes that he could get a double-digit percentage of the questions correct. Fortunately for Izuku, he learned that he had gotten over ten percent of the questions correct. Unfortunately, this newfound knowledge comes in the form of Bakugou screaming at him.

"What the fuck new kid. You're even worse than the rest of these extras. Fifteen percent, even freaky fingers got above thirty and he's a major dumbass. You are worthless, I could show you that your name could also be read as useless but I doubt you can even read."

 _There's no need for him to humiliate me like that._ After the verbal assault is over, Bakugou seemed to get his anger towards Izuku out, however, he has an endless supply of explosive rage and he is done taking it out on Izuku. He starts looking at every single test when he gets to a certain girl. A vein pops out of his forehead as he snatches the paper out of her hand. Somehow, despite 20% of the population having quirks, Melissa is the only person in the entire school who doesn't have a quirk.

Melissa looks down at her test to see that she got a 92. A look of panic washes over her and Bakugou tries to pierce her entire psyche with a glare. Screaming at nearly the top of his lungs, "What the fuck is this, how are you the second best? You must be cheating!" Bakugou rips Melissa's test out of her hands and blows it up. "Quirkless losers are good at nothing. Don't ever forget that."

All Izuku can do is just watch this outburst directed at the new girl. He is completely shocked that the teacher is doing nothing about it. _THERE IS NO WAY THE TEACHER CAN JUST SEE THIS AND DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. I Do not want to start trouble but I can't just watch this._

Just as Bakugou is about to reach Melissa's notebook, Izuku grabs Bakugou's wrist. Everyone goes completely silent and even the teacher stares at the two children. Bakugou stops his explosion, completely shocked that his arm stopped moving.

Izuku freaks out realizing what he just did. While horribly stuttering Izuku manages to say, "You shouldn't blow up her notebook just because she's quirkless. I have a quirk that is pretty strong yet I got the lowest score."

Bakugou yanks his hand free from Izuku's grasp and aims his attention towards the terrified Izuku.

"Look at you. Why did you try and stop me, you're trembling. Why do you try and stop me if you're too scared to talk clearly."

"I couldn't just let you destroy her notebook, she probably worked really hard on it."

Bakugou P.O.V.

Bakugou readies a response but instead angrily scoffs and sinks back into his seat, hands twitching at his brewing anger. _Just because I am letting this go, for now, doesn't mean I'm done talking to you Izuku. Your little response just solidified your place as the most intriguing student. I just have too many questions to ask in front of these extras. I won't let you keep secrets from me. I AM BAKUGOU I am going to be the number one hero and that means I'm not gonna be an extra. This new kid is such a mystery. No one has ever stood up to me before. Where'd he even come from? Why the fuck would a giant eight-year-old with a strong quirk be walking around with heroes and why was he such a pansy. I am going to find out this time instead of letting Izuku run out of school the second the bell rings._

Bakugou doesn't have to wait until the end of school to talk to Izuku. When lunch comes, Izuku doesn't go to the cafeteria to buy anything, he just pulls out his lunchbox. They are the last two students still in the classroom which means that Bakugou could finally get his answers. He walks towards Izuku with a maniacal grin. Mini explosions are coming from his hand, letting out his tension. Izuku turns around to look at Bakugou right as Bakugou lets off another explosion, the fire grazes Izuku's face. Now that he was sure Izuku was thoroughly intimidated, he wastes no more time to begin his questioning.

Izuku P.O.V.

Izuku feels his singed cheek and looks up to see Bakugou's angry form looking down on him. "I have a lot to ask you, new kid. Why were you walking around with a pro-hero on your way to school? That girl you were walking with was the same person who came in first place in the third year U.A. sports festival two years ago. Also, if you're gonna transfer to a school, why did you choose this one when it sucks?"

Before the exasperated Bakugou could ask anything else, Izuku finally is able to speak.

Izuku gets a flashback from a few days before of Ryukyu telling Izuku how to act if anyone presses him on his past.

 _Remember Izuku, if anyone asks, say that you lived in this area your entire life. You were homeschooled because you got injured in a villain attack. You don't know who the villain was or anything about the attack. If anyone sees us together outside of my agency just say that I was the one who found you and we bonded over that._

Izuku snaps back to reality and looks down but still in Bakugou's direction, "I have lived in this area my entire life, but I was involved in a villain attack when I was young. I was homeschooled after the villain attack and recently, I was finally deemed ready to go to school. I don't know anything about the attack and I would like to keep it that way. I know Ryukyu since she was the one who found me after the attack so we bonded a little afterward."

"That's a great sob story Izuku, I'll let you go for now as long as you stay out of my way. Maybe one day, you might be able to challenge me."

Izuku feebly nods as Bakugou finally leaves him. He sees his face in the metallic reflection of his lunchbox. The explosion had opened up one of Izuku's scars. Some blood has dried just underneath it. Despite being reminded of his time with Overhaul, Izuku can't help but smile. The brief look of relief from the girl when Bakugou's hand didn't come down almost seemed to make up for all the trauma he experienced.

While Izuku knew that he definitely didn't want to get in Bakugou's way again, he also wouldn't let Bakugou bully Melissa. It didn't matter that he didn't really know her. After all, Izuku knew all too well what it was like to be a child left behind.

The day ends and Izuku walks to the school gates to see who's going back to Ryukyu's agency with him. He is surprised to see that the boss himself is waiting for him in a disguise that covers his face. The walk to the agency is relatively fun for Izuku. With simple prodding, Izuku learns all about Bones' quirk. Although by hearing about the bosses fighting prowess just by speaking to him, Izuku understands how Bones' had gotten to be so popular. _Very strong and good at talking to people_. Izuku writes down everything he hears from Bones along with some personal insights in a newly bought notebook which he labeled "Hero Analysis For The Future" and the Boss was the first entry in that notebook. Almost at the agency, Izuku can't wait to talk to Ryukyu to see how she and the other two main sidekicks got so strong.

The two reach the agencies building. Izuku closes his notebook and Bones gets to see the name of the cover. He smirks and walks inside.

Over the next few weeks at school, Izuku continues to try and stop Bakugou from lashing out at whoever he feels like despite being terrified every time he does so. Eventually, Bakugou starts exploding only at Izuku. While everybody else is too scared to ever help Izuku, he gains the silent respect of the formerly tormented. Either way, Izuku is glad that Bakugou takes out his frustrations on Izuku instead of somebody who isn't able to take it. If being kidnapped and tortured for half of your life did one thing, it made Izuku very patient and gave him a very high pain tolerance.

During these weeks at school, Melissa finds Izuku and thanks him for being the only person to ever stand up to anyone for her, that feat even more meaningful with the offender being Bakugou. Izuku has occasional conversations with Melissa, but he's still too awkward to talk to anyone else.

Izuku also spends that time getting close with everybody at the hero agency. Even though he memorizes the walk from the school to the agency, they always insist that someone come and take him. Izuku also manages to fill his entire first notebook with notes from just the four main members of the agency. With his exceptional analysis, the heroes are occasionally interested in what Izuku has to say about them. This stability allows Izuku to work very hard to catch up to his class as soon as possible.

Within a few months, he catches up with the rest of the class and climbs all the way to the 3rd highest spot in their grade. Melissa also uses Izuku's protection to jump Bakugou and get the highest grades in the grade. Even Izuku sometimes manages to better than Bakugou in some tests.

All is seemingly well with Izuku's world over the next few years as Izuku settles into his stable loving household. He expands his note-taking to many other heroes as Izuku is allowed to and has the confidence to wander around in public after he finishes his first school year.

Endeavor was true to his word as well as he took his three children to their mother the day he promised. At the hospital, he even got on his knees, with his children still there, and begged for his wife's forgiveness while promising her that he was a changed man. After the children left and the When he was talking to his wife alone, Endeavor came clean about his affairs and his illegitimate child to her along with the untimely death to said child, promising that he hasn't had any other partners since the child was born. He promised that he secretly had trained guards with all of his children along with tracking devices so that an incident like the one that killed Touya would never happen again. Endeavor was still dead set on surpassing All Might and he let Rei know of it but he promised to try and be more of a family man. That day, Rei Todoroki agreed to come home after a few months as long as Endeavor agreed to ease up on Shoto's training and if he agreed to train Natsuo or Fuyumi if they wanted it.

Even though Endeavor got Rei to come back home, he was still by no means a good father. His determination to surpass All Might often worked its way into other parts of his home life. Endeavor still rarely spoke to his family outside of training with Shoto, but having Rei around made life much more enjoyable for Shoto, Fuyumi, and Natsuo. Endeavor would at least acknowledge Natsuo and Fuyumi when they saw each other which is a huge step up from before.

Fuyumi doesn't want to be a hero so Endeavor gladly continued not training her and mostly staying out of her life, however, much to his dismay, Natsuo did want to be trained. They didn't see eye to eye about the training since Natsuo wants to be a hero but doesn't want to take it as seriously as Shoto does. While not all heroes worked as hard as Endeavor and Shoto did, Endeavor wouldn't let one of his children go into that line of work if they don't treat it like the life or death job that it is.

When Natsuo eventually decides that he would take hero work seriously, Endeavor reluctantly agrees to train him. Endeavor is a little surprised by Natsuo's natural skill with his ice powers and he is soon able to not get blown away in training by Shoto when Endeavor is away doing hero work.

Throughout the first few months after Endeavor brings Rei backs, she never has the heart to actually watch one of Shoto's training sessions. Shoto insists that the training isn't as violent as before so she simply takes his word. Her motherly instinct gets the best of her as she insists on watching in on one of the training sessions. Rei witnesses Shoto only using his ice in one of his spars with Endeavor. Once Shoto is done, she confronts him about why he only uses his ice powers. Upon hearing his reasoning she calls him an idiot and hits him in the head with a rolled up magazine. From that moment on, Shoto uses his fire without restraint.

During these years and unknown to the world, the most important fight of the century had just happened. The fight between humanities worst supervillain, All For One, and the current user of One For All, the world's greatest hero, All Might. All Might is critically injured during the fight, and because of that, he isn't able to check on All For One's corpse to confirm he is dead. All For One's loyal servant Kurogiri is able to capitalize on the commotion of saving All Might and swoops in to warp All For One's body back to their base. All Might's mentor, Gran Torino, takes All Might to a hero hospital right away to try and ensure his survival. All For One is somehow able to survive the fight since his brain is intact and his anti-aging quirk can put his body in a frozen state as his regen quirk does its best to regenerate his body.

With both All For One and All Might severely weakened, they both must look for successors for their unique quirks, or find a way to heal their bodies. Fortunately for All For One, he has a plan for both of those scenarios. He had already been grooming a successor in Tenko Shimura, who has since changed his name to Tomura Shigaraki, for some time now and hopes to pass on All For One within ten years. All For One had sensed that there was only so much one could do in a lifetime so he wanted a successor to be the next symbol of evil. As for healing his body, he didn't want to spend his last few years hooked up to a machine. So, fearing that a confrontation with All Might was near, All For One searched vigorously before their bout for a person in the criminal underground who could heal him. He found his answer in the criminal known as Overhaul. While Overhaul wasn't specifically a healer, the side effect of using his quirk on a person was that the person would end up in perfect condition after being reassembled.

All Might, on the other hand, had made no progress in looking for a successor. He had been barely looking at some U.A. students and graduates but he hadn't thought about any of them seriously. Apparently, Nezu had some mystery kid who he thought would end up as his successor but All Might hadn't even met the kid and he doesn't even know anything about him. After the battle, All Might was not in good shape. The few doctors in the loop advised him to quit hero work considering he had completed his goal of stopping the greatest evil. Finding a successor was now a necessity, and, unbeknownst to him, his worst enemy was about to be back at full health.

(Present time)

Overhaul is surprised when someone manages to contact him. He takes extra precautions to make sure that he was impossible to find by both heroes and villains alike. The only person on the outside who knows anything of his operations is supposedly dead, and also a child. That's why he is very surprised when a person manages to contact him. The surprise is even more apparent when the person attempting to contact him is none other than the current leader of the criminal underworld, All For One. On the main monitors in the facility, a video message is left with Kurogiri speaking on repeat. "All For One is interested in your services. You were a hard person to find but I'm sure this offer will be beneficial for all of us. You know how to contact us, with our next chat, we will give you the location of the next meeting."

The members of the Precepts of Death are thrown into a frenzy when they get the message. Overhaul looks at everyone and screams at them to shut up. Overhaul knows that this wasn't a business opportunity that he could pass up. He also knows that All For One had certain methods of persuasion that he didn't want to have to deal with and no one would dare impersonate him because of said methods. Overhaul doesn't need to give much thought to the proposition, he messages Kurogiri that he is interested in the opportunity and schedules for them to meet the next day."

Ten minutes before the scheduled meetup time, Overhaul enters the bar to see a tall ghastly man with no discernible face talking to a kid with blue hair and a very dry face who appears to be in his mid-teens. Overhaul looks around the room to make sure that nobody else is there and it appeared that they were the only three people there. He had half expected to get ambushed as soon as he walked in. _It was a stupid thought in retrospect, All For One shouldn't have any reason to kill me and he wouldn't need such an underhanded tactic to do so._

The man with the purple ghastly body speaks, breaking the tense silence.

"Hello Mr. Chisaki, my name is Kurogiri. I am an associate of All For One. We are glad that you received our message, as I said earlier, you are a hard man to track down, however, I believe you are the perfect person for this piece of business. I have a coordinate based teleportation quirk and with your permission, of course, I'd like to take you to where he is staying."

Overhaul doesn't need to think about his answer, "I agree to go wherever you want me to go, I'm very interested in this proposal."

Kurogiri floats towards Overhaul before enveloping him in his warp gate. Overhaul's vision is temporarily clouded as he feels the sensation of falling. He hits the ground in the new location and barely stays on his feet as he tries to orient himself to the new room. What Overhaul sees is completely shocking. The strongest and most feared man in the entire criminal underground is in front of him, connected to several life support machines with nearly all of the features of the upper half of his body missing. His eyes and ears are missing with scars covering where they used to be.

Overhaul gets over this initial shock and tries to make a formal introduction, "Hello Mr. All For One, it is an honor to actually meet you. I got your message about a potential business opportunity and I am intrigued by what you might suggest."

All For One slowly sits up in his chair, his mere presence commanding respect and fear despite his apparent crippling injuries.

All For One remains silent for a moment, letting the anxiety wash over Overhaul before he starts speaking in a slow methodical voice, "Kai Chisaki, a prodigy and current head of the Precepts. You were born with a quirk that seemed impossible to master and you spent your entire life mastering and perfecting this quirk. You've used your quirk and knowledge to grow the Precepts without leaving behind any footprint. Your organization is very hard to find and with enough resources, you could be a top dog in the criminal enterprise."

Overhaul is still confused but manages to respond almost immediately, "While I greatly appreciate the praise, I'm not sure I understand how this relates to a potential business opportunity."

All For One lets out a small chuckle, "As you can see, I'm not in great shape right now. I had a battle with the current number one hero, All Might, and I lost. This is where you come into the picture. I can offer you the resources you need, as well as an upgrade to your battle power and all I need in return is a small favor."

"What do you need, and in what form would my resources be in?"

All For One smiles, "I will give you three billion yen as well as an artificial fighter, known as a Noumu. This Noumu should be able to give any hero a very good fight and will mindlessly follow your orders. Now, onto what I need you to do. Given that your quirk is disassembly and reassembly, you should be the best healer in the entire criminal underground. I know that you do not take requests for healing, but if you agree to restore me to my full health, I will give you everything you ask."

Kurogiri steps forward and opens a massive briefcase filled to the brim with ten-thousand yen notes.

Overhaul smiles. _I knew I had no choice but to accept but this offer will totally change the direction of my organization._ He turns to All For One, "I will gladly heal you. I will warn you though, this will likely be some of the most intense pain you will ever feel and you probably won't feel like you are living in your own body for the next few days. I do have one favor to ask though. Is there any way I could get a demonstration of this Noumu's abilities?"

All For One speaks in a more normal tone, "Of course, we can also send you the testing that goes along with the Noumu so you know it's quirks as well as it's physical specifications. Consider this knowledge an act of goodwill. On to the healing itself, as long as you can heal me, I don't care how you do it."

Overhaul nods. He then steps forward and carefully removes all the tubes and medical equipment from All For One's body. He places each of his hands on All For One's collarbone before concentrating all of his power into his hands and completely disassembling All For One. There is no blood as All For One appears to completely disappear. Overhaul then takes a deep breath as his hands begin glowing. All For One instantly reforms, looking almost exactly as he did before his fight with All Might.

All For One begins laughing as he opens and closes his fist. "Mr. Chisaki, I must say that this went better than I could have possibly imagined it going. I am back to my full strength and their isn't a scratch on me. You have more than earned your reward. Kurogiri will warp you, the money, and the Noumu to wherever you want."

Kurogiri warps Overhaul away along with the money and Noumu. He quickly returns to the room to be alone with All For One.

Kurogiri looks at All For One, "How do you feel, are you back to full health?"

An elated All For One clenches his fist and flexes his bicep.

"All Might better watch out, because next time, he won't make it out alive."

(The End)

* * *

Hopefully you enjoyed the chapter. Originally the quirkless bullied girl was going to be random, but I decided that it could potentially be more interesting to have Melissa Shield be the girl instead of some complete OC. Fun fact, during my brainstorming, I almost made that girl to be Ibara Shiozaki or an OC that would be her quirkless sister. I think Shiozaki would have been a fun character to include as a very prominent character in the story, but I don't like it when fanfics have too many characters that are unnecessarily connected to the story. I can't believe that this has 400 follows though, that's just amazing to me. Anyways, I don't want to make this too long but please favorite and follow if you like the fic. I answer all comments and every comment is appreciated. Hopefully, the next chapter comes out much more quickly than the last one. Have a great day :D


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